Media Statement - 26th August 2007
Federal Labor will today invest $220 million in the health system to establish GP Super Clinics in local communities – bolstering frontline health care for Australian families.
Labor’s investment will ensure more Australian families have access to doctors, nurses, specialists and allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists, podiatrists, dieticians and psychologists, all in one centre, in their local community where they need them.
The GP Super Clinics plan is detailed in Federal Labor’s New Directions for Australia’s health – Delivering GP Super Clinics to local communities paper released today.
GP Super Clinics form part of Labor’s announcement last week of a $2 billion National Health and Hospitals Reform Plan to improve Australia’s health system and ensure better health services for patients.
Federal Labor's GP Super Clinics will provide infrastructure funding to establish a greater range of convenient and quality services in local communities – particularly in rural and regional areas and where Medicare has not been utilised to its fullest because of workforce shortages.
Along with incentives to pay for administrative and nursing support, funds could be used to provide for teaching rooms and facilities to make the Super Clinics attractive to new graduates, trainees and GP registrars - encouraging health workers into regions where there are workforce shortages.
And by having renovated or purpose-built facilities that allow space for group sessions and a range of staff, the Super Clinics will have a particular focus on assisting people to stay well, or better manage existing chronic conditions.
Combined with the prevention strategies Labor has already announced, Labor's GP Super Clinics will help take the pressure off hospitals long term, provide a greater focus for tackling the challenge of chronic disease in local communities, and mean much greater convenience for patients.
Investing in GP Super Clinics is part of Federal Labor’s comprehensive plan to end the blame game on health and provide local solutions within a consistent national strategy.
Australia needs a systematic approach to fixing the health system; not just one-off policies for marginal electorates.
Federal Labor’s National Health and Hospitals Reform Plan announced last week has two central elements:
1. $2 billion in investments to deliver improved health outcomes for patients in Australia’s health care and hospital system.
2. A commitment that a Rudd Labor Government will seek to take financial control of Australia’s 750 public hospitals if State and Territory Governments have not begun implementing an agreed National Health Reform Plan by mid-2009.
Labor’s National Health and Hospitals Reform Plan will focus on:
- Reducing avoidable hospitalisations and readmissions to hospital;
- Reducing non-urgent accident and emergency presentations;
- Reducing waiting times for those people who require essential hospital services such as elective surgery; and
- Providing more appropriate non-acute care for older Australians.
To progress this plan, Labor has established a Health and Hospitals Infrastructure Advisory Group to identify the urgent capital needs of hospitals and health services in communities around the country. The group will be chaired by Shadow Health Minister Nicola Roxon.
Labor will also establish a National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission within 100 days of being elected to office. A central role for the Commission will be to identify strategies to better integrate primary care with hospital and other health services. Poor integration between services is one of the key areas of inefficiency and duplication in the current system.
Labor understands that taking pressure off hospitals requires ensuring good quality health services in local communities. And through bolstering Commonwealth investment in primary care by supporting new GP Super Clinics, we're prepared to do our part.
NOTE: The paper, New Directions for Australia’s health – Delivering GP Super Clinics, is available under 'downloads' on this page.