EMMA MCBRIDE, ASSISTANT MINISTER
I'm so pleased to be here today in True in Cairns as part of a national approach to strengthening the health of women and girls right across Australia. This clinic here is one of 20, endo and pelvic pain clinics that have been successful in receiving funding as part of $16.4 million across the country. To really boosts that timeliness and access to quality care for women and girls to improve their health outcomes. I'm so pleased to be here in a regional centre as one of the four in Queensland and as I said, 20 across Australia. So, this funding is $16.4 million over four years, $700,000 to a clinic like True here, and that money will be able to be directed towards the recruitment of specialist staff to be able to provide the resources that staff need for their training and development, for specialised equipment, including physio equipment, and through all of this what we'll see is a boost in the timeliness and quality of care for women and girls. We know across Australia, it's estimated that one in nine women experienced endometriosis. We know the impact that that can have on their health, on their well being, on their employment, on their fertility. And we also know that it typically takes seven years from when someone first experiences symptoms until when they're diagnosed, and we know that that can be longer in more rural and remote communities. I'm so pleased to be here today with Robin from the PHN with Karen from True and to have had the chance with Jody to walk through and see the clinic spaces here. This service has been offered for 50 years. And I'm so pleased to be part of a federal government that is making the health of women and girls a priority to make sure that they have access to timely quality care close to home. And this is a part of a broader investment that we've had including standing up a National Advisory Council on women's health to end, as Ged Kearney calls it, medical misogyny. So to make sure from the research bench to the bedside, that women and girls are getting access to timely quality, affordable care and particularly for people living outside of major cities that access close to home.
JOURNALIST
Has care for specifically these kinds of health issues, endometriosis, pelvic pain, has that been neglected and overlooked in terms of funding for a long time before now?
EMMA MCBRIDE, ASSISTANT MINISTER
We know that the health of women and girls has been overlooked. It's been underfunded from research and development through to clinical care. And we see the consequences of that in the health and well being of women. So I'm so pleased to be part of a government that's put the health of women and girls as a top priority. And we're seeing this strong investment from research and development through to quality clinical care that a young woman will receive in a place like True today.
JOURNALIST
And why Cairns? I guess you know, and it's for other regions as well. Is their stats, higher rates here?
EMMA MCBRIDE, ASSISTANT MINISTER
We know that the further you live outside of a big city, the worse your health outcomes are likely to be. We saw a recent report from the Royal Flying Doctors that said a woman who lived in the most remote part of Australia had a life expectancy 19 years less than their counterpart in a major city. So this is part of our investment in regional and remote healthcare. To make sure that wherever you live you can get access to timely, affordable quality care. It's something that as a Labor government were determined to turn around because we know that the health outcomes for people living in regional parts of Australia and including regional Queensland needs to be improved. And we're so pleased to be working hand in hand with the state government and with the health and hospital services network and the PHNs very locally, to be part of that change.
JOURNALIST
Obviously bringing new services, increasing their services in Cairns is a big step into the region. But of course we go up to the Torres Strait and the Cape and there's a lot of space out there and people that would have to travel a long way to get here. Are there plans to try and increase access to these services for people in more remote areas?
EMMA MCBRIDE, ASSISTANT MINISTER
Part of the services that they offer through True is an outreach service. And Jody just told me that, that just this week, she's been on the road and seen over 100 women in different communities. So by boosting the funding to a service like True, they will be able to also increase that outreach that they provide to make sure that wherever a woman or girl lives they can get access to that timely quality care. We don't want to see those delays that we see at the moment where a young woman will typically experience a seven year delay whilst they're searching for the right kind of diagnosis, which will then lead to the right sort of treatment and care. So boosting funding to centres like this and four across Queensland and 20 across Australia will also boost that outreach work that they can provide.
KAREN STRUTHERS, TRUE CEO
Well, this is an exciting day for Queensland women, for regional Women, for Women in Cairns and the surrounding areas. We want to give a big shout out to the federal government. This is what happens when you get more women in parliament I reckon. Periods, pelvic pain, pap smears become in conversation. They're awkward topics for a lot of blokes and I send a shout out to Emma McBride and her team. It's great. It's so exciting. You can see the faces of our clinicians and others here. They want this service in Queensland, in regional Queensland, in Hughenden and Croydon and places like that. So it's really very exciting.
JOURNALIST
I know that some of the specifics are still being worked out. But what is this funding going to translate into in terms of the services that we can deliver?
KAREN STRUTHERS, TRUE CEO
Well, it will really support our clinicians and engage and recruit other clinicians and allied health in all sorts of areas because these issues require multi responses. Clinical treatment, there's no one fix or no one support to help ease this sort of pain and the lifestyle, a lot of women are suffering in silence. So our message is, we will have capacity through this funding to help you not suffer in silence. Don't wait seven years. Let's have people who can pick up on this issue and screen for these issues early on and get treatment early.
JOURNALIST
Can you give some examples of the sort of allied health support and support services that you're hoping to get to more women who are suffering with endometriosis?
KAREN STRUTHERS, TRUE CEO
Well, women who are suffering with pelvic pain really need at times physio, they need sometimes it's a pharmaceutical response. The clinicians need to be alert to all of these issues and ways of dealing with no one case is the same. And women experienced these issues differently. I'm just very excited that women will get the holistic support, they'll get it early. And our message to women in this region is give us a call come and see us. We will support you don't wait years don't suffer in silence come and see us.
JOURNALIST
How much of a difference do you think it would make to have more of these services that are all available within the same space rather than women having to try and find a GP who knows enough about it to refer them onto the right service?
KAREN STRUTHERS, TRUE CEO
Well, again, I give a big shout out to the PHN because they're really strategic about how they work with partners in the non-government sector, in the primary health care sector, to make sure the responses are placed based and localised and regionalised to suit people's needs, no matter where they live. So I really expect that we will see some really innovative ways of responding to the needs of women, not only in the urban centres around kids, but also in the far flung cases of Queensland, is so interesting to live in, but can really mean that you miss out on some of the good health services. We don't want people to miss out based on their postcode.
JOURNALIST
And what kind of a difference can it make to women's lives getting the appropriate care and support when they're suffering with this kind of pain?
KAREN STRUTHERS, TRUE CEO
Well, I think we all know in our own families and our own communities, in our own lives at times, these issues become debilitating. They keep us away from work. They stop us from doing things. This will mean a better quality of life. If women can get support early and they can get that from True. They will have a much better quality of life. There's nothing worse than suffering with that sort of pain and not knowing how to deal with it.