General Practitioner Trading Hours

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:45): As members would no doubt be aware, yesterday the opposition made an important policy announcement and that is that the Tarzia Liberal government will make it easier for South Australians to see their general practitioners by supporting GPs to stay open for longer hours. Our GP after hours increased access trial would support GP clinics to extend their opening hours during the week and also to open on Sundays.

Specifically, this two-year trial, worth some $24 million, would provide more South Australians with the opportunity to access routine and preventative GP care outside of traditional business hours, including till 8pm Monday to Friday, and from 9am to 1pm on Sundays. Under the proposal, up to 80 GP practices could apply to receive a grant of up to $150,000 per practice per annum to meet additional costs of operating after hours, such as wages, on-call allowances, facility costs, energy costs, etc.

By extending the time a GP can open, it will allow for more appointments and give families flexibility to manage their health and medical needs at a time that suits them. This, of course, will greatly reduce the day-to-day pressures on families and allow them the opportunity for, typically, their children, or of course themselves, their loved ones, to be seen in a timely manner and at a time more suited to them.

By extending the time a GP can open, it will allow for more appointments and give families flexibility to manage their health and medical needs, as I have outlined. As it stands, scheduling a routine GP appointment around work, school and other social activities that is also within a clinic's opening hours can be challenging, as no doubt all of us have experienced, and indeed our constituents experience, and it can hinder preventative health checks due to the inconvenience that it may cause.

This is of course something that we want to discourage and enabling these clinics to be open more hours would enable more such checks to be made. Having the ability to see a local doctor for reasons such as vaccines and just regular health checks in general will have the potential to keep South Australians healthier in the long term and ultimately prevent additional strain on our already overstretched health system. This is a positive initiative and one which I am sure South Australians will receive very well.

Indeed, this plan is not just about providing flexibility for families but also keeping people out of our emergency departments, if it can be possibly avoided. Our local GPs are an essential workforce and essential service in keeping our communities healthy, happy and ideally out of hospitals, which of course not only is more convenient and a more desirable outcome but has significant savings to the taxpayer as well.

The Liberals are committed to removing any barriers that could deter people from accessing primary health care, which is why we have announced this policy alongside our longstanding promise now to eradicate the state Labor government's GP payroll tax. We will abolish that if elected. The Liberals believe we need to develop and implement policies in line with what professionals in our health sector are advocating, and we are determined to do so in the lead-up to the next state election and beyond.

This is a positive initiative, which I think will generally be well received by families right across the board, by people who have to visit GPs frequently, and also of course by the GPs and the health profession itself.