Primary Healthcare Services

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the government make primary health care more accessible for South Australians? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: Yesterday the opposition announced that we will fund a two-year GP after-hours increased access trial if we are elected in 2026. This is an initiative that the Royal Australian College of GPs have been calling for to provide flexibility for families and to keep people out of EDs.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:32): Firstly, this is something that the government is investing in, in terms of primary care. We have been very delighted by what we have been able to deliver already in terms of expanding the access for pharmacy, in particular the three—soon to be four—24/7 pharmacies that are now available across South Australia.

Hundreds of thousands of South Australians have been able to utilise these to get access to their health care throughout the night. That has been a very welcome service that has been available for South Australians. Of course, we are expanding the role that pharmacists can play to be able to treat more conditions. That has already happened with UTI treatment and the pill, and is about to expand to well over 20 different conditions through the work that we are undertaking in our expanded scope of practice for pharmacists.

Secondly, I would point to the work that we have done collaboratively with the federal government in terms of the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics that people now have access to. We have Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across Adelaide, and also based in regional areas, where people are able to get, for extended hours, care for urgent but not life-threatening matters. These have been incredibly well utilised and received by the community and have absolutely made a difference in terms of reducing some of the low acuity-level presentations to our emergency departments. We are thankful that there are more of those to roll out across the coming years as well, in the federal government announcements.

The other thing I would point to is the work that we have done in terms of virtual care services. People are now able to access a GP when they call Healthdirect. If they speak to one of our nurses on the Healthdirect phone line, previously they would have been referred to 'speak to your GP the next day'. Now we can refer them directly to a GP on the line. That has helped many South Australians to get the care they need immediately, and connects in with the 24/7 pharmacies so they can quite often get the medication that they need all within the space of an hour or so, whereas previously they would have been waiting until the next day.

Of course, we are always looking in terms of other opportunities to expand the work that we are doing. Certainly, there is more work to come in terms of expanding mental health primary care services as well. We are really delighted with the opening of the new Mount Barker Medicare Mental Health Centre that has recently opened there. That adds to the Elizabeth centre that has been opened. The Port Pirie centre has been opened as well. We are soon to have a Kids Hubs service and an Aboriginal mental health and wellbeing centre to open to provide more community mental health primary care services as well.

The thing that I would say in terms of the opposition's proposal that they floated yesterday is we haven't heard anything about what that means for price for people when they would be going to one of these services. There has been no commitment as to whether these services are bulk-billed. All the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are bulk-billed. A lot of the GP practices that we have seen the opposition stand up with over the past couple of years have some very significant after-hours rates, well over $100 out of pocket in some cases.

So I would argue that shifting appointments from the day to the evening and then having a resultant additional cost for patients wouldn't lead to a significant benefit for patients. I guess I would point to the opposition to outline how they are going to guarantee that those would be bulk-billed services. The other thing that I would say is to bring us back to the tricky question that they seem to not be able to answer, which is how they want to increase spending and reduce the debt and reduce taxes all at the same time.

An honourable member: The magic pudding!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The magic pudding.