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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3601 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

of health workers to ensure adequate coverage of rural and outer suburban areas. These sorts of practical proposals would make health service delivery more effective and efficient for both the Commonwealth and the states and territories. And, importantly, they would improve the services to the public. The current draft agreement tackles only the second of these issues, with the proposed Pathways Home program, the details of which need considerable work. Ideally, there should be programs to tackle each of these priorities.

(7) General practitioner access and affordability. These are issues of considerable concern to the ACT government, with decreasing access and affordability impacting heavily on ACT residents and, as a consequence, on other ACT health services. The government is very concerned about the undersupply of GPs in the territory. In 2001-02, the ACT had 65.5 full-time workload equivalent GPs per 100,000 population, compared with the national average of 84.9 per 100,000. That is 20 full-time workload equivalents less than the national average or 30 per cent less than the national average. The other jurisdictions have one-third more than we have. This level is lower than in many rural areas in Australia. This is the capital of the country, and we have fewer full-time work equivalent GPs per 100,000 people than in many rural areas in Australia.

The ACT also has the lowest level of bulk-billing and schedule fee observance of any Australian jurisdiction. Bulk-billing rates have been declining in the ACT since 1997-98, with the current rate of 51.2 per cent being the lowest since the early nineties and lower than the average for rural and remote areas. As GP services decline, pressures increase on emergency departments. Since 1998-99, the growth in attendances at ACT emergency departments of patients with less urgent conditions was approximately 15 per cent. This situation is unacceptable and must be urgently addressed by the Commonwealth.

The ACT government has proposed a number of policy alternatives that it believes would be of greater benefit to general practice in Canberra. These alternatives include an extension to the ACT of the incentives provided for practice nurses and allied health services currently only available to rural, remote and other outer metropolitan areas; GP remuneration models that address after-hours GP services; and models that reduce the compliance and administrative costs associated with participation by GPs in government programs, in particular the advanced primary care medical benefits schedule items.

In conclusion, health care is one of the most important issues for the people of Canberra. The Stanhope government has committed significant additional resources to our health system over the past few years. In combination with the concessions won by the government in the latest health care funding round, they will result in a better health outcome in the ACT.

I commend the motion to the Assembly.

Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.

Sitting suspended from 12.22 pm to 2.30 pm.

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