Page 3960 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 29 November 2022
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We look at the history of Liberal governments here in Canberra which reduced health funding and, in fact, closed a much loved and much needed hospital. We then look at motions like this one, which seems to call for more public health funding, albeit with a lot of inaccurate information woven through it. We have decided that the most useful thing we can do is set out some of the Greens’ policies, so that Greens policy on health funding is at least clear.
The Greens understand that health care is a fundamental part of government. We are advocating for substantial increases in investments in universal health care right across the country. During the federal election earlier this year, we made the inclusion of mental and dental care a key priority of our campaign. The Greens are committed to making dental and mental health care part of Medicare, and we want to reinvest the private health rebate back into the public system. The last time that the Greens were in the balance of power federally, we made dental care free for kids.
Locally, we have made substantial gains in the public provision of mental health care, not just through funding but through the prioritisation of mental health care as a fundamental aspect of public health. This is symbolised not only by the establishment of the mental health ministry; it is actually actioned through it as well.
I will leave the detailing of these successes to the minister herself, who I think will be speaking shortly. We are fundamentally reorientating the way people receive care, and we are putting emphasis on keeping people with mental healthcare issues out of emergency and in the community. Community-based care is fundamental to the ACT Greens approach to health care. It is an adage but it is true: prevention is better than a cure.
The impact of a decade of underinvestment by the federal Liberal government in primary care, aged care and disability care has put increased pressure on our system. We know people are waiting for too long in our emergency departments and on lists for elective surgery. The ACT government has continually and significantly invested in the ACT’s emergency departments and the broader hospital to improve patient flow, including a $23 million funding boost for the Canberra Hospital emergency department and $16 million for more patients to receive services at the Calvary Public Hospital, including the expansion of Calvary’s medical imaging to a 24/7 service, through the last budget. Through the 2022-23 budget, the government also boosted the allied health teams at Canberra Hospital’s emergency department.
Our acknowledgement of the issues in the emergency department are why we have been such strong supporters of walk-in clinics. They are a really good mechanism to provide free and readily available health care across our city, and they aim to prevent these patients from ending up in the emergency department. It is also why we are trying to change the health system and the way we think about health problems. We want to take a more systemic approach to the relationship between people’s lives, their living conditions, their access to care and their health.
While a lot of emphasis is put on emergency care as a measure of success, we need to take a whole-of-society approach to our healthcare system. We need to see the ED as the last resort, not the primary point of care. We need to think about health as a whole-of-society and whole-of-life experience, and understand the connections
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