ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: I'm so pleased to be here today with my colleague and friend, Minister Ryan Park, for this really important dialogue about regional health. We're here outside Cootamundra Hospital, one of the examples of what quality care close to home means to local people. This bilateral, the second one that we have done together, will focus on top priorities for people living in rural, regional, and more remote parts of New South Wales, and our shared commitment to improve access to quality care and bring that closer to home for people wherever they live.
As a health worker myself, and someone who has ran a department in a regional hospital, I know just how important that is to local people and to communities. And today, we’ve got to hear from Prue, who will soon be nurse practitioner endorsed in emergency medicine. To see someone who has advanced local practice, working to the top of their skills and expertise in this local community hospital, shows, when someone has the right support with the right kind of incentives wrapped around them, the difference that can make to quality care.
For us as a Commonwealth, this partnership with New South Wales, continues the day-to-day work that we do together to improve access to care for people. I'm so pleased to share that rural generalism has now been recognised as a specialty within the specialty of general practice, acknowledging the skills and expertise and scope that rural generalists bring to communities like here in Cootamundra. And hearing today from Dan who is a GP, who is accredited in anaesthetics, shows you what it means to local people being able to access quality care close to home and to family.
And I'm also pleased to share that we now have the largest number of GPs’ training in Australia – 1,800 local doctors training to be general practitioners right now through the Royal Australian College of General Practice and ACRRM. It shows you that when, at a state and federal level, we value health practitioners, we provide the right support around them, that we will see that they can choose to pursue careers in primary care and general practice, including in more regional and remote communities.
So, pleased to be here for this really important dialogue with New South Wales focusing on primary care, aged care, mental health, and of course, workforce. And delighted to be working alongside New South Wales in our shared commitment to making progress; to monitoring how things are at; and, to reaffirming our shared commitment to communities like Cootamundra right across regional, remote and rural New South Wales.
I’ll now hand over to Minister Ryan Park.
RYAN PARK, NSW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND REGIONAL HEALTH: Thank you, Emma. Thank you to you and for your incredible advocacy.
I've been doing this job for about two and a half years. I can assure you, as I travel the length and breadth of New South Wales and go out to rural, regional and remote communities, the feedback that I'm getting because of the work that the Commonwealth is doing, particularly around workforce, is making a real difference. Assistant Minister McBride has been really spearheading that. And I just want to put on the record how grateful New South Wales is, and how grateful the communities that I've spoken to firsthand are for that, particularly around the rural generalist specialty. That is a remarkable thing to bring into place, and it will provide a real career path for some of the most sought after workers in New South Wales. And that is GPs working at both our hospitals and in our medical centres across regional, rural and remote New South Wales.
The Assistant Minister and I know we've got serious challenges. We are not shying away from that. We will continue to face those head on. But what we're trying to do in these types of bilateral forums is to provide an engagement and opportunity to continue to work together to make sure we both know what we're doing, what our government departments are doing, what our focus is on. We know there are challenges with patients stuck in our hospitals that need to be in aged care and NDIS. We're working through that with Minister Butler and Assistant Minister McBride and Minister Rae. That is an important piece of work for New South Wales hospitals.
The workforce piece is another significant thing and another significant challenge that we're working on together. New South Wales is trying to provide some significant incentives to ensure we attract and retain staff into regional, rural, remote. The Commonwealth Government is working on those specialties and making sure that rural generalists are prioritised and recognised through the single employer model. So, we are working together on some of the wicked challenges that face our health system. We're not in denial about those challenges - they are real, they are significant. But what we're trying to do is work towards solving them by developing solutions in partnership and together.
In a two-funded health system we have in this country, both parts have to work together. And that’s why these bilateral forums are particularly important, particularly in relation to rural, regional and remote healthcare. That is very near and dear to the heart of Assistant Minister McBride and myself. But it's also importantly – sometimes, not always - going to get the attention it needs. And that's why, in our respective portfolios, we've wanted to have a laser-like focus on this area of healthcare delivery. We want to make sure our agencies are focused on this. And we want to make sure that we're doing our very best to provide healthcare as close to where people need it in regional, rural and remote New South Wales and through the Assistant Minister right across the country.
Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: I just wanted to talk about the Health Forum. It's supposed to meet twice a year but, from what I can see, it hasn't met since October 2023. Is that correct?
MCBRIDE: These forums now - and Minister Park wrote to Minister Butler back in March - to hold one of these forums. So, the intention of these forums is that we come together, as Minister Park has said, to have a laser-like focus on health, regional health. In this case, there was an election that came in between, but in no way has it changed our focus or our priority. And I'm so delighted to be here today alongside Minister Ryan Park to build on what we do day-to-day and week-to-week in a more structured forum, with a particular agenda as Minister Park has outlined - aged care, primary care, health workforce, to make sure that we are continuing to work together in a strong partnership.
As the Minister has said, we're not papering over the problems, these are big and persistent problems. And I've experienced that as a chief pharmacist working in a regional hospital – health workforce, recruitment, retention, increased demand. But what the community should know is that we are determined in our efforts to collaborate to make sure that the resources are directed in the most effective way to produce the best health outcomes for the people.
JOURNALIST: Will you meet again this year?
MCBRIDE: We have met. This is the second bilateral that I've held with Minister Park, and I held one with the previous administration in New South Wales. So, the intention is that they meet regularly. And our expectation is that, within our communique today, that we'll determine the next date for a future meeting.
JOURNALIST: Minister Park, you have talked about the importance of regional healthcare. Particularly, one of the biggest things that's, I guess, being discussed in our region at the moment is the potential split of the MLHD. Where do you stand on that?
PARK: Look, I don’t believe that is the solution to the challenges. And I want to be clear in this, I respect Helen Dalton enormously for the work that she does representing the people of Murray and the southern part of New South Wales. What I don’t want to see is [indistinct]… back of office [indistinct]… a second set of staffing managers, et cetera – a whole lot of challenges on the ground. They are real challenges. And we need to make sure that the district is focusing on the entire district, not just on parts of it. Now, I believe they are. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think there are challenges, and that doesn’t mean that I don’t think there needs to be [indistinct]…
What I want to see is that- make sure that we get better representation across our board, better representation across our executive, better representation across our staff to make sure that we have people at every level advocating for the broader health district. But what I don’t feel is the solution is simply separating those two out.
JOURNALIST: Can the State Government afford this?
PARK: Well, I don't believe this would be money best spent. I don't believe that taxpayers want to see another level of bureaucracy. I think what taxpayers and community members want to see is more services in the hospitals and more- better access to their services. Now, that's what I'm determined to do in working in conjunction with the Member for Murray. That doesn't mean that I don't think her concerns are real. I've had the opportunity to meet with her over the last few years on very many occasions. She's a strong advocate for her community, as she should be as a local member. I just don't feel that this solution addresses those problems. I don't think it will deliver better services to the people of her community or the part of southern- in the Riverina, southern New South Wales. I think what we as a Government, need to continue to do is engage with clinicians, engage with the workforce, engage with the community as well as the local member about how we improve those services.
Now, the coming online of that new hospital in Griffith will certainly help that. Regional workforce incentives will certainly help that. Moving to ratios in our local hospitals will certainly help that. That doesn't mean that the challenges are not real. They are, I just don't think this is the answer to solving those challenges.
JOURNALIST: So what is the answer?
PARK: Well, the answer is that me as the Minister and as a government continue to engage with our community, our clinicians and our patients and our broader staff, including the local member, around what we need to do better in that community. I think what we need to continue to do is look at how we attract and retain our staff. That means continuing to invest in our incentives. That means continuing to update and upgrade our hospitals wherever possible. But it also means continuing to out-rule- sorry, roll out initiatives such as ratios in our smaller hospitals. That will be a priority going forward. I think we need to continue to look at how we engage the workforce, and that is particularly around areas like scope and practice for our pharmacists, our GPs and our nurses so that they are providing more of the skills that they can do more broadly across the community. So, my intention is to focus on what the challenges are, then work on trying to solve those, not create a separate bureaucracy.
But I want to be clear, that is my view. I respect that the community and some members of the clinical staff may have a different view. I respect that, and I also respect that the challenges are [inaudible], but I don't believe that solution addresses those problems.
JOURNALIST: So, fair to say you're ruling it out for now?
PARK: Yeah, we're not going to be doing it at the moment. That doesn't mean that I won't take any consideration what comes out of the inquiry, nor does it mean that I won't take any consideration some of the concerns and feedback from clinicians and the local member. I'm going to continue to do that. I meet with Helen Dalton frequently. I meet with her frequently to talk about some of the challenges in what is a very big geographical local health district. I recognise that. I'm not trying to deny that. What I don't believe, though, is the solution is to set [inaudible] to try and deliver health services in that part of New South Wales.
JOURNALIST: Just following that, there's council [inaudible] going out and getting consultation with members of the public about this. Do you think that's a waste of time? [Inaudible] …
PARK: No, I don't think it's a waste of time. I think you should always continue to engage with the community. I do it. Plenty of times I engage with the community, and plenty of times with my own government and in previous governments, I've had a lot [inaudible] conversations. You don't always get exactly what you want. Ministers don't always get exactly what they want. I think I can learn a lot from this type of dialogue. My reference is extremely respectful. I just don't believe at the moment that that solution addresses some of the problems raised. That doesn't mean that I don't think there are issues. I think there are. In being geographically-spread LHDs, there are challenges. We've got to make sure that we've got people representing that [inaudible] at the various levels of the LHD. I think that is important from the board all the way through to the clinical staff, through the executive at our hospitals and to our frontline staff. I don't believe that it should be focused on one particular geographical area. That's certainly not my intention, but I just don't believe separating them, creating a second set of bureaucracy, creating a second set of corporate services, back office functions will deliver what the frontline services need for the people of that part of New South Wales.
JOURNALIST: If the inquiry recommends a split, would you consider that?
PARK: Look, we'll consider everything in terms of what the inquiry recommends. What I'm saying to the community, and I'm been up front now, is that I don't think this solution addresses the problems that they're raising. That doesn't mean that I don't think the problems are real. I do. I think there are real challenges in large geographically spread local health districts. What I think they're better solved by is some really good clinical governance all the way through, from the management of the LHD all the way through our local hospitals to make sure there are people, particularly in leadership positions, across the local health district who are providing their input. And that doesn't mean that we necessarily need to break the district in two, but I do think there should always be areas for improvement around better engagement with the workforce and better engagement with the community about the sort of services they need.
Now, that doesn't mean that every community is going to get every single health services that they want, need and expect. It is a challenge. Workforce is a challenge in regional, rural and remote New South Wales. I'm not going to pretend to deny that. We're always challenged, as every government is, with the best use of taxpayers’ money, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be engaging with the community. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't be engaging with staff. You should be, and you should be looking for ways to address those problems, and that's what I'm determined to do. That's what I expect of myself, and I think that's what the community expects of me [inaudible].
JOURNALIST: A significant part of the Western region's concerns is that they're perhaps being ignored by the East. This week, you've been to Temora, you've been to Cootamundra, and you sent out a media release today about Wagga. Nothing about Griffith. Are you part of the problem?
PARK: No, I'm not. I've been to Griffith before; I've been to Helen Dalton’s electorate a number of times. Greatest respect, I've spent a lot of time on the road, both as the shadow minister and the Regional and Rural Health Minister. Happy to put my record against the last governments in terms of engaging with regional, rural, and remote communities. A priority of mine, I wanted the Regional Health portfolio. I asked to have it from the premier at the time. The reason I did is because I'm passionate about rural healthcare.
Now, I will continue to engage with Helen Dalton. I will continue to engage with that local health district. I will continue to with clinicians directly and indirectly through the health district. That's what I expect of myself as the Health Minister.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Last couple, guys. We've got to get going.
JOURNALIST: I've just got some questions for Albury, if that’s okay? Are you concerned that the provision of cancer care in southern New South Wales will be impacted by Albury Wodonga Health's decision to take over the privately operated part of Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre?
PARK: Well, look, I want to find a little bit more about this, obviously – how my counterpart in Victoria essentially operates that hospital. So I will undertake to engage with her and her office to get a little bit more information about this and make sure that I get back to the community with some information that I can provide. But as the Minister who provides part funding to it but doesn't necessarily run it, I just want to make sure my counterpart in Victoria is kept informed about these concerns, and what [inaudible] might be able to do to alleviate some of these concerns of both staff and the community.
JOURNALIST: Do the New South Wales Government have any involvement in that?
PARK: Well, we obviously help fund that health service, to the tune of- often of about 50 per cent. Not always exactly, but often to that extent, so it's a significant investment for us. It's operated by the Albury Wodonga Health Services, essentially operated through Victoria. But the Health Minister, Mary-Anne Thomas and I, obviously engage a lot both through health ministers' meeting, we regularly are at. This is a service that we have a close affinity to, and I'll certainly engage with her about these issues. Thanks everybody.