SEAL

Well, Labor is promising Australians they will have access to free after-hours telehealth services if re-elected. Joining me live is Dr Anne Webster, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health. Doctor. Thank you very much for joining us. We're just hearing this announcement, of course. What's your thoughts on it first of all?

WEBSTER

Well, I think we have to look at the track record of Labor. They're very, very good with the headline. I grant them that. But there is an awful lot of spin in there as well. If you take the urgent care clinics for, for example, they were supposed to work miracles for people who couldn't access a doctor. But what we've actually found in the regions in particular is that doctors are leaving general practice clinics to actually be able to support an urgent care clinic. And the cost to taxpayers goes from $42.00 for a Medicare visit at a GP clinic to $240+ dollars for the same doctor in the UC clinic. And then if you go to a hospital over $600.00 for the same complaint, so, you know, the government needs to be looking at where it is spending its money now the Health-Direct announcement or the expansion of or the supplement, I think is how Katie Gallagher described it this morning, of the Health Direct to 1800-Medicare is, you know, it's interesting. I think we'll see how it all plays out. What we want is sustainable and supported general practice because primary care is how we keep people out of hospital and it's how we manage chronic long-term conditions that people are faced with.

SEAL

I spoke to a doctor just a moment ago and she said there are some positives to this 1800 Medicare announcement. However, it's always very hard to assess a patient without examining this doctor said. Even harder if you have never met them.

WEBSTER

Absolutely. And it's why, you know, Labor's centralisation of healthcare, which is their solution to almost everything and we're certainly seeing that in regional Victoria where Healthcare and hospitals are being centralised to major areas such as Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Melbourne and funds and investment is being taken out of our regions. The expansion of the Distribution Priority Area, you might remember when Mark Butler first stepped into these shoes as health minister, the very first thing he did was bleed the regions of doctors by expanding the Distribution Priority Area, allowing international medical graduates to effectively leave the regions and go to outer suburban Melbourne, in our case, in Victoria. Of course, in the other cities, so it's not about looking after the regions where we have a desperate need for more doctors. And what I am pleased to say, Jamie, is that the Coalition has invested $100 million to train doctors in the regions, I made an $8.7 million announcement last week here in Mildura, where I am today, to say that young people can train as a doctor in this town if we win government, of course end-to-end, so they don't need to leave the region because we know that 75% of students who train in the regions will stay in the regions and that's what we need to see. We need to see a sustainable solution to the healthcare crisis that we have been facing.

SEAL

Alright. And before we let you go, the Royal Australian College of General Practice President Michael Wright backed the announcement from Anthony Albanese. And he has written that ‘this is a positive step forward that will help more people access care when they need it. It will help GPs across the country provide after-hours care on weekends and during the week.’ Is this something that the Coalition will look at potentially matching?

WEBSTER

Well, I believe you know in what you've said earlier, before we started speaking that the Coalition have matched that. I haven't had a conversation with Anne Ruston about that, but I take that as granted that we are matching that. But what I want to see are more doctors out in the regions, more healthcare investment out in the regions because this is where we have an older population, those who suffer with chronic conditions that are not cared for and hence we have higher morbidity rates and mortality, and that's just not fair. That's not Australian. 30% of people live out in the regions and we need to see more investment out here, not less.

SEAL

Alright, so if you're matching what the what Labor is doing, their pledge is ‘vote Labor, vote Medicare’. What would you say about the Coalition, if people are wanting to vote for the Coalition and get the same benefits as Labor is presenting?

WEBSTER

Well, we're clearly matching, and I believe that Peter Dutton has made that very clear, that we are matching the Medicare promises that Labor have made. So it is the same. The question is, who delivers? Labor say - that Medicare, you know, is all theirs and they've got the highest numbers. And it's been terrible, I mean, it's just not true. They're blatant lies because in fact, it's under the Coalition that we had much higher Medicare bulk billing rates and you'll see it continue under a Coalition government. So my bet of course is for a Coalition government to win this election and to fix the healthcare debacle that we now have.

SEAL

Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health and Webster, thank you so much.

WEBSTER

Thank you, Jaynie.

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