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Home > Ministers > The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP - Minister for Health > Media Hub > Transcript - ABC Radio - Newcastle - NSW Wednesday - 26 September 2012

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PDF printable version of Transcript - ABC Radio, Newcastle, NSW Wednesday, 26 September 2012 (PDF 193 KB)

26 September 2012

E&OE Only

Topics: Intern places, Hunter Medical Research Institute

Jill Emberson: Australia's Health Minister Tanya Plibersek is on her way to the Hunter right now enjoying what I hope is a smooth ride up the F3.

She's coming to the Hunter for a tour of HMRI's $90 million new premises and she's also holding a phone conference today with state and territory health ministers to encourage them to fund extra training places in state-run hospitals. That's extra training places for our medical students.

The Federal Opposition says around 180 Australian trained doctors could be forced to look for work overseas because they've missed out on hospital internships. What a waste of money.

Tanya Plibersek, Health Minister for Australia on your way up the F3 now. Good morning and welcome to 1233.

Tanya Plibersek: Hi Jill, how are you?

Jill Emberson: Very good. What's the traffic like?

Tanya Plibersek: Fine actually. I think I'm probably going the right way for the traffic.

Jill Emberson: Yes, you must - do it more often, you might see some different versions of it. Great to have you with us this morning.

Okay, that's a pretty - that would be a dreadful thing if something such as the Federal Opposition is suggesting 180 Australian trained doctors having to head off overseas just because we couldn't find them a state hospital placement. Can you fix that?

Tanya Plibersek: Yes. Well, I am talking again to health ministers - state and territory health ministers this afternoon. I think it's very important that we find places for these medical graduates.

You know, part of this is a good news story. What it shows is that we're graduating many, many more medical students than we have in the past but there's something of a bottleneck in this last year. So, the Commonwealth Government has paid for the extra graduate places, [indistinct] they've paid for the extra medical students and then we've got all the Australian students have been found a place.

On top of that, the universities take full fee paying international students. They were about 180 short on finding places for those full fee paying international students. I think it's important that we do find places for them to choose [indistinct].

The truth is we still have lots of shortages in many, many parts of the country and we know that students who train here in Australia are likely to stay here in Australia and particularly if we put them in regional locations or even in the bush, they're much more likely to settle in those locations where we have no doctor shortages. So it's good for us to find places for those students.

It's also important for our international reputation as a education provider. These students have paid for five or six years for university education here. It's pretty important that they can have their final year of on-the-job training because without that, of course, they can't practise even overseas and, you know, having made that investment in their own education, I think it's a fair expectation that they would find a place...

Jill Emberson: [Interrupts] How did we end up like - how did we end up in this difficult situation? I mean, it almost seems ridiculous.

Tanya Plibersek: Well, the Federal Government has dramatically increased the number of medical places at Australian universities because we've got a shortage of doctors. The states and territories have known for some time that this increased number of students was going to need placement in public hospital systems. They've known that for years. These doctors have been in training for several years now.

The states and territories have traditionally always been the ones who have placed interns in their public hospitals. I mean, basically this is the states and territories saying we don't want to pay for that year of their labour in our hospitals. You know, they're happy to have them as doctors down the track but we've got this little problem between the Commonwealth funded time at university and when they're able to practise without supervision.

And my argument is that the states and territories, they need these doctors in their systems. We've all got a responsibility to deal with the issue of the shortages of doctors in many parts of the country.

As a Commonwealth government we've put extra money into training medical students and I'm happy to come to the table to this internship year issue as well. Although it's not traditionally a Commonwealth responsibility, I think it's something that's important we work together to solve but I need the states and territories to dig deeper and place some of these students in their public hospital system.

Jill Emberson: Is the relationship and the often testy one between the states and the Federal Government even more so now when we have so many Liberal Coalition state governments and a Federal Labor Government? Is this going to continue to get in the way of essential services?

Tanya Plibersek: Look, I don't think it's an issue of Liberal versus Labor. What I do think is important though is that we continue to invest in the things that are important and I am concerned when I see cuts to the health system and education system.

Governments always need to find savings but how you find those savings is really important. If you take a meat cleaver to expenses and you don't think carefully about how that money needs to be [indistinct] then you can do a lot of damage on the way through.

So, we need to be just as strategic in our savings as we are in our spending proposals and make sure when we cut we don't do long-term damage. And I think this investment in training the workforce of the future, making sure we've got Australian-trained doctors in our hospitals and in our GP surgery is a terrific investment in the future health of our health system.

We've got to just, you know, lift our game in this internship year issue and we'll have a stronger supply of doctors on the future.

Jill Emberson:: Well, we certainly need them. There's plenty of shortages right around the country and, you know, not the least of them right here in the Hunter.

Minister, you're here for the opening of HMRI's building, a new brilliant $90 million building. You are also, as I understand it, announcing recent findings of Australia's longitudinal study on women. Are you able to reveal what that will be about?

Tanya Plibersek: Oh look, I've got a few things to do today. I'm certainly getting a tour of the medical research building; I'm very much looking forward to that.

I am releasing the findings of the Women's [indistinct] health study and I'm announcing funding as well for its continuation.

Look, this is just a study that's been done for many years now and it keeps track of whether women are taking up prevention measures, like are they getting their breast screening done, are they having their pap smears done, are they doing all of the things that keep you healthy? So, it's important to know those figures to know where we continue to emphasise those, you know, good health messages.

I'm going to the [inaudible]… MRI machine [inaudible]… medical centre has been operating for a while so there's an official opening this afternoon with Jill Hall. So, it's quite a day of visits.

I'll also - meeting with the Hunter… the Medicare Local this morning which is a terrific organisation of primary healthcare providers working together to provide better healthcare and they've just celebrated their millionth after-hour GP [indistinct]…

Jill Emberson: Yes.

Tanya Plibersek: …so, I'm going to go and help celebrate that.

Jill Emberson: That would be very good.

Just before I let you go, [indistinct] a first in the Hunter is our health insurance provider NIB coming up with a system where health service providers, your occupational therapists, physios et cetera can be rated online through the website of the health insurer just as you can say, do a review of a book, a restaurant, a hotel. What do you think of that as an overall concept? Good or bad?

Tanya Plibersek: Well look, we have a My Hospitals website, the Government does, and it's based on very carefully collected data. I think it's really important to have transparency and it's very important for patients to know about the doctor they're visiting or the facility that they're visiting.

I just urge caution to be very, very careful when it comes to collecting data. You've got to be absolutely sure that your numbers are right in a situation like that.

Jill Emberson: Good to get that word of warning from you. I'm sure heeded, absolutely, by NIB. Minister, thanks for your time, have a safe trip up here and we look forward to hearing more of the outcome of that study that you're launching today.

(END)