Labor will enter the final week of the election campaign armed with a new $970m investment in primary health and a boost for infrastructure upgrades in GP practices.
The policy, unveiled on Saturday and welcomed by the Australian Medical Association as a “strong down payment” in boosting primary health care, includes a $750m “Strengthening Medicare” fund to roll out from 2023-24 and a $220m grants program for upgrades in local GP practices.
Labor says the new funding will improve patient access to general practitioners both during and after business hours and provide greater affordability and better management of complex and chronic health conditions, which should relieve pressure on public hospitals.
If Anthony Albanese wins on 21 May, Labor will create a taskforce chaired by the minister for health to consult on a new primary health care strategy with all the medical stakeholders, including the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, the Consumer Health Forum, and the National Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Organisation.
GP practices will also be able to apply for grants worth between $25,000 and $50,000 for larger clinics. The funding will go to upgrading IT systems to support telehealth consultations, training for staff, new equipment and upgrades to infection control and ventilation for GP surgeries.
The new health initiative comes ahead of the Liberal party’s official campaign launch on Sunday. Labor is expected to release its full policy costings next week.
The AMA’s president, Dr Omar Khorshid, welcomed the new funding commitment. “The primary care fund announced today by the ALP, if implemented, is a strong down payment that will help realise the recently completed 10 Year Primary Health Care Plan – a plan which has remained completely unfunded by the government,” Khorshid said in a statement.
“The ALP’s primary care fund pledge will allow investment in programs that will improve access to services for patients including GP after hours services and the Workforce Incentive Program,” he said.
The shadow health minister, Mark Butler, said average out-of-pocket costs to see a GP have increased by 33% under the Morrison government.
“Australian primary care is in crisis,” Butler said. “Our local GPs were at the coalface of the Covid pandemic, providing Covid and vaccination advice, administering vaccines, and trying to keep up with their usual case load with little or no support from the Morrison government.
“Our doctors deserve more than thanks. They deserve a government that gives them the resources to deliver the best healthcare outcomes for Australians.”
In the middle of April, the AMA met with Anthony Albanese to urge the Labor leader to reconsider his “small target” strategy on health. That meeting followed criticism from the peak medical body about Labor’s $135m urgent care clinic policy.
In response to that initiative, Khorshid noted while the urgent care clinics might be popular with the public, they would not make any difference to the pressure on emergency departments. In an interview with Guardian Australia at that time, he added at that time that he would be encouraging Labor to be more “courageous” on the issue of health.
While Labor is promising almost a billion dollars for primary care, the issue of hospital funding remains unresolved.
Earlier this month Albanese said he was prepared to sit down and work “constructively” with state premiers who are campaigning for an increase in the level of hospital funding. But the Labor leader ruled out making any grand funding promises before the election.
All state and territory leaders have been pushing the federal government to permanently lift the commonwealth’s funding guarantee to a 50-50 funding split beyond June 2023 when the current arrangement ends. The cost to the commonwealth is estimated at about $5bn extra a year.
At the last election, the then Labor leader, Bill Shorten, promised to lift the commonwealth’s share of hospital funding to 50%, but came under fire from the Coalition for its large suite of policy offerings with a scare campaign focused on the “Bill you can’t afford”.
The health policy to be unveiled on Saturday is expected to be Labor’s last significant policy in that portfolio before election day.
