Community health services
Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Health. Ten days ago our communities received the devastating news that our community health centres in Kensington, Collingwood and Fitzroy will close their GP and counselling services or close their doors entirely. This will hit the most vulnerable in our community the hardest, particularly public housing residents and people with complex health needs. Over 12,000 people will be affected. Now they will either not get adequate health care, because we simply do not have enough bulk-billing GPs, or be pushed into the already overrun hospital system. Evidence shows that for every $1 the government invests in community health services $14 is saved in other areas of the health system. Community health funding is a joint responsibility between state and federal governments. Minister, will the state Labor government step in with urgent funding to save our community health centres from closing?
Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:32): I thank the member for Melbourne for her question, which I welcome. The Allan Labor government has always backed in our 23 independent community health centres. They are an extraordinarily valuable part of our health service system and operate right across this great state of Victoria. Of course our community health centres receive funding from a range of sources. They receive state government funding; indeed $188 million is invested by our government. They receive funding from the federal government. In some instances they receive funding from local government, and some community health services also receive philanthropic funding for particular programs.
I want to thank Cohealth, who I know strive to meet the needs of some of Victoria’s most vulnerable patients. But I want to be clear: the decision that has been taken by Cohealth in relation to the GP clinics reflects their concerns about the adequacy of the Medicare payment as it relates to long consults for some of their most complex patients. I have worked closely with Cohealth, indeed with the CEO Nicole Bartholomeusz, who I know very well and have very high regard for. She is an amazing leader in our health service system. Working with her I have advocated to the federal government. I have written to the federal minister Mark Butler, and as a consequence of that the federal department of health and aged care officials are working with my officials and indeed with Cohealth.
But I want to be clear: primary health care funding is a federal government responsibility. Yet no state or territory government has done more in primary health than us. Under a former Liberal–National government that trashed Medicare, we were required to step in and open urgent care clinics in order to meet the unmet need for primary health care during the COVID time, and indeed we continue to support those urgent care clinics. In response to the member for Melbourne, our government will work with the federal government and with Cohealth and aim to find a way through here to address the gap in Medicare funding that Cohealth are receiving.
Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:35): I thank the minister for that response and thank her for being engaged on this issue. I understand there is a federal element to this funding, but there is also a state element. The community health sector have been raising the alarm for many years about insufficient funding at both the state and federal government level putting their services at risk and not being adequate to meet the need. For example, only 0.3 per cent of the state Labor government’s health infrastructure funding is spent on community health services, even though they deal with some of the most complex cases and keep people out of hospital, which obviously saves the state government money. Infrastructure Victoria recently recommended the state government increase this to 3 per cent to better fund these services. Will the minister commit to increasing community health service infrastructure funding to 3 per cent of health infrastructure funding as recommended?
Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:36): Thank you again to the member for Melbourne for the supplementary question. Community health centres have always been eligible to apply for funding through both our Regional Health Infrastructure Fund and our Metropolitan Health Infrastructure Fund, and indeed we have supported a range of community health infrastructure projects in the time that we have been in government. We will continue to work with our community health service providers in order to ensure that they can continue to deliver vital care. In terms of that infrastructure investment, as I have said, they have always been eligible to apply for those programs. But, again, we need to remember that community health was established by the Whitlam Labor government back in 1972, and here in Victoria we have continued to support those centres and we always will.