Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Dr REID (Robertson) (11:24): The Albanese Labor government is strengthening Medicare through our urgent care network. Can I just say this new model of care in Australia was only possible with the election of the Albanese Labor government in 2022, and it has only been possible to expand that network with our re-election with 94 seats in the 2025 federal election, when people voted overwhelmingly for our health policy.

So let's talk urgent care. If you were too sick for the GP but not sick enough for the ED, under the coalition government you did not have a place to go. You either went to your GP and then went on to the ED or spent hours in an emergency department.

Well, we now have a solution for this issue, and that solution is urgent care medicine for a few conditions that are emergent or urgent but not life-threatening. We're talking about the management of ulcers with IV antibiotics; we're talking about mild COPD and asthma exacerbations; we are also talking about the suturing of small lacerations—just to name a few.

I know that across the Central Coast Local Health District—which includes Robertson, Dobell and a bit of Shortland—we have now seen a reduction in triage category 4 and category 5 patients because our urgent care centres are working. Thousands of Central Coast residents are now attending our urgent care centres to get the urgent care that they need. Not only are people able to go there and get urgent care for non-life-threatening issues if they are too sick for the GP but not sick enough emergency; people are attending here as a first stop for their medical condition and then ending up being referred to the emergency department because it is potentially a life-threatening issue, but the management of that condition has already started.

I'm talking about life-threatening arrhythmias; I'm talking about rapid atrial fibrillation; I'm talking about acute myocardial infarction—a heart attack, a blockage of the artery; I'm talking about severe pneumonia—these types of conditions. I've spoken to the doctors in my urgent care clinic. These conditions are starting to be treated in our urgent care clinics.

Then an ambulance is called, and they end up going to emergency. But the treatment has already begun. So, by the time they enter the resus bay—by the time they enter that acute bed in the ED—the treatment has already begun, and the patient is starting to improve.

Sepsis is a great example of that. I mentioned severe pneumonia before. In sepsis we talk about the 'golden hour'—making sure that we can get those IV antibiotics and IV fluids on board, and all the necessary investigations and medical imaging done—and it has already started, because they've gone to the urgent care clinic and seen these world-class doctors, who are able to provide urgent and sometimes emergent care, and the mortality rate of these patients will decrease because they are getting the therapy that they need within the golden hour.

So the urgent care network is something I am extremely proud of. I'm proud to be part of a government that has led the way on healthcare reform, particularly in the creation of new models of care. We went to the first election only promising 50; we now have them right across the country, in every corner of the country, taking the pressure off our emergency departments.

But they're also taking the pressure off our general practitioners, whose focus should be preventive health care. Most of primary care is the prevention of disease. That might be looking at your cholesterol levels, prescribing cholesterol medication and making sure that that doesn't then progress to a stroke or a heart attack.

It's making sure, for patients with diabetes, that their kidney function is okay and their sugars are intact so that they don't end up going to an emergency department. It's making sure that our GPs across Australia are given the opportunity and time to see the patients that they see in the preventive health space. Then there is also the emergency component.

Patients going to the emergency department, prior to the establishment of these urgent care clinics, would sometimes be waiting hours. I know that, in hospitals across New South Wales, sometimes they've been waiting 15-plus hours as a category 4 or 5 patient because they didn't have anywhere else to go, and they've been going through the fast-track or house doctor section of ED.

But, now that they've got somewhere to go, we're seeing a reduction in EDs of these non-urgent cases. And now, if you're too sick for the GP and not sick enough for the emergency department, under the Albanese Labor government you finally have somewhere to go.