Urgent care clinics have reduced hospital wait times, the prime minister insists, despite a report saying it’s too early to tell.
Anthony Albanese has continued to spruik health measures on the campaign trail, with the issue likely to feature prominently at the second leaders’ debate on Wednesday night.
A government report said it was too soon to determine if Labor’s much-touted urgent care clinics had led to shorter wait times in emergency departments, but the prime minister maintained the centres were making a difference.
“I do (have evidence), come and talk to anyone … you can talk to people there about whether they would have ended up in an emergency department,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday.
“(The expansion of the clinics) is justified.
“It’s taking pressure off those (emergency departments), every state health minister is saying the same thing, Labor and Liberal.”
The report said 344,000 trips to the emergency department would be avoided each year if the urgent care clinics were operating.
The government would also save $368 per presentation to the clinics, the report found.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said patients should still expect to fork out for their health care despite separate promises by Labor to expand bulk billing to 90 per cent by the end of the decade.
“The bulk-billing rate … is in free fall … because the prime minister wants to pretend that people can just go to the doctors, flash their Medicare card and somehow they’re not going to have to pay an out-of-pocket fee,” he said.
“That’s just not the reality of families here in Melbourne and right across the country.”
Australian Medical Association president Danielle McMullen said the government’s $8.5 billion pledge to boost bulk billing – a promise quickly matched by the coalition – wouldn’t fix the system.
“The extra incentive doesn’t meet the cost of providing that care (for longer appointments) and we want to make sure that all Australians get a decent rebate back in their pocket,” she said.
“They really needed to reform the structure of Medicare and put more investment into those longer visits, more nurses, more allied health into general practice.”
While the prime minister was declared the victor in the first leaders’ debate, Mr Albanese was still playing the underdog card ahead of the second showdown.
“You have to take any campaign day by day and I don’t think the outcome of the last debate affects tonight’s debate at all. It’s very different,” he said.
“I was grateful for those people who put their little bit of paper in the red box rather than the blue box and that was a good thing for me. But I don’t take anything for granted.”
The debate, hosted by the ABC in western Sydney, will be the second of four head-to-head verbal jousts between the leaders ahead of the May 3 election.
ANU political scientist Jill Sheppard said while debates tended not to shift the dial for any leader or party, they could turn into massive traps for candidates who perform badly.
“It’s not so much that they say or do something particularly stupid, but that they have to be on the ball for a whole hour, and that’s really tough,” she said.
“What we find is that leaders tend to come through unscathed, but it takes a heap of preparation and a heap of co-ordination and strategy to make sure that they do come through unscathed.
“At the end of all that, you haven’t necessarily won votes, but you haven’t lost votes, and them not losing votes is the most important.”
Australian Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national newswire and has been delivering accurate, reliable and fast news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We keep Australia informed.
