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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 129 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

providing pilot funding for two years to cover the costs of the Canberra after-hours locum service, known as CALMS, providing care on the midnight to 6 am shift;

funding the Calvary Hospital primary care clinic to provide free 24-hour access to primary care services for people with less urgent conditions attending Calvary Emergency Department;

funding the Canberra Medical School, and

moving to formally establish nurse practitioner positions.

However, there is only so much the territory government can do. The real responsibility for fixing this problem lies with the Commonwealth.

I would like to look now at the crisis in GP numbers in the territory. The figures are stark. In relation to work force numbers, in 2001-02 the ACT had 65.5 full-time workload equivalent GPs per 100,000 persons, compared with the national average of 84.9 per 100,000 persons. Only the Northern Territory has a lower number.

By way of comparison, residents of capital cities have 90.8 per 100,000 full-time workload equivalent GPs. The only regional classifications with fewer full-time workload equivalent GPs per 100,000 people than Canberra are those areas defined as the "remote centre"or "other remote areas".

As I stated earlier in relation to the bulk-billing decline, the ACT government has been working extremely hard to reduce the impact of this decline in GP numbers on ACT residents and to improve access to GP services.

I have been involved personally in the government and Tuggeranong Community Council campaign to attract a GP to the Lanyon Valley. Despite the ACT government's best efforts, however, we cannot solve the causes of the decline in bulk-billing and GP numbers. It is time that the Commonwealth government lived up to its responsibilities in this area.

The Commonwealth has repeatedly rejected our calls to change policies and to assist the ACT in this area. The Commonwealth has the capacity to help the ACT overcome its acute shortage of general practitioners but has stubbornly refused to act. The Chief Minister has approached the Commonwealth Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Patterson, repeatedly requesting Commonwealth assistance.

The ACT could move forward on this issue by declaring GP positions as areas of unmet need positions, but we cannot give practitioners access to Medicare provider numbers. Only the Commonwealth has this power and, in order to grant access, it would need to declare the ACT a district of work force shortage. However, the Commonwealth has previously rejected our case, despite the overwhelming evidence in our favour.

Patients in the ACT are suffering from the Commonwealth's neglect, but I can assure Canberrans that the ACT government will not give up fighting for them. I know that the minister, Mr Corbell, will work in partnership with all other states and territories to promote reform of the supply and the quality of primary health care services through the renegotiation of the 2003-08 Australian Health Care Agreement.

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