REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: We are celebrating Women's Health Week, and I'm very proud that today I'm able to announce the $25 million commitment we've made to establish centres of excellence for long-acting reversible contraceptives, not only here in Tasmania, but right around Australia. There are eight locations that today have been publicly announced, with services to commence no later than 31 October.
Now, these centres of excellence are really important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's about providing equity of access for women right around the country to long-acting reversible contraceptives. The services are free for the consultation, the insertion or removal, and pain relief here in Tasmania is also included. Which is going to make a big difference, because I know a lot of women have felt a bit nervous about having an IUD inserted and to know that pain relief is included, I think, would be hopefully one of the opportunities to help women overcome that barrier.
We're also investing in uplifting the capability of the workforce. We want to make sure that our Tasmanian and Australian workforce GP’s, can appropriately work with women to be able to insert and remove LARCs and as a key part of this, we're also providing outreach. Obviously, we're very fortunate here in Tasmania that Family Planning has a service located in Hobart, Launceston, and Burnie. But through this contract, they will also be providing outreach services to places like Circular Head to make sure that women living in regional parts of Australia and Tasmania can have access to long-acting reversible contraceptives, being provided care by a health professional who can do that with care and compassion, making sure pain relief is provided, and they can have access to one of the most effective contraceptions that is available.
We also, as you may recall last year on 1 November, added additional rebates for IUDs, which means that for most women, there's no out-of-pocket cost. But there is still a cost of $25 for some of the devices, which is funded through PBS, which is one of the significant health infrastructures we're lucky to have here in our country.
The other important thing to note is that while long-acting reversible contraceptives are very good as a contraception, they're also really useful for women to help manage periods, pain, endometriosis, and so this provides much greater access for many more women to be able to have a consult with their GP and to access advice that could be truly life-changing.
JOURNALIST: Lovely. Well, yeah. Do you want to talk to the demand and I guess this announcement - what it might mean for women looking to access services like this?
CATHERINE MOULT, FAMILY PLANNING TASMANIA: Family Planning Tasmania are really excited by this opportunity, because it's going to allow us to build on the LARC services that we already provide to the Tasmanian community. We're going to be able to increase our clinics, which will improve capacity to provide these services and also reduce waiting times. We're going to be training more clinicians in how to actually do LARC procedures, which will improve access for patients across the primary care sector.
And we're planning to increase outreach clinics, which will help women across regional and remote areas of Tasmania to access these services.
JOURNALIST: Is wait time a bit of a barrier for women looking to access LARC services?
MOULT: It can be, yes.
JOURNALIST: What would that look like typically?
MOULT: Currently, we have a little bit of a longer wait in the North West. So we're hoping that, with this, we'll be able to reduce that.
JOURNALIST: For sure. And you- sorry, you'll be offering more services here or you'll have a different clinic?
MOULT: We're going to be increasing capacity across our clinics, so across the state, plus providing that outreach service.
JASMINE BROOKS, PATIENT: I've had experience here with the pelvic pain pathway, which I've spoken about previously, and it was a really amazing service and experience. And as part of my journey in the pelvic pain pathway, I did have an IUD inserted, not only for a contraceptive but to minimise my pain. I've got endometriosis and IUD has been probably the most effective way that my pain has been able to be managed through that.
JOURNALIST: How much did the pain beforehand dictate your life and your ability to go out and feel normal, I guess.
JASMINE: Prior to the IUD insertion my pain from my endometriosis was pretty debilitating. As most women who have this experience will know it kind of ebbs and flows, but when it is quite a bad flare-up it can really impact my day-to-day activities, whether that's work or exercise or any other commitments.
JOURNALIST: And there is some hesitancy around IUD’s. I guess, yeah, do you kind of experience that yourself, a bit of nerves, especially around the pain?
JASMINE: Yeah, definitely the nerves around the pain with insertion was just pretty terrifying. But being able to have access to the pain relief as part of the insertion process was a life changer. It made it a much less anxiety provoking experience and, yeah, really minimised the pain.
JOURNALIST: Do you have any advice or words of wisdom for women who might have been in a- or might be in a similar situation to you?
JASMINE: Yeah. I have heard some horror stories from people who have had some pretty negative experiences with IUD insertion, mainly around not having access to pain relief. And I think it's just really important that, as a woman, that you advocate for yourself and know that pain relief is available and it is a right and it will make everything a lot easier for you.
JOURNALIST: Amazing. Well yeah, we're finishing up Women's Health Week now. Can you talk us through the goal of this year and the theme?
KELLY BRUCE, CEO, WOMENS HEALTH TASMANIA: The theme of this year's Women's Health Week is, just do it anyway - really encouraging women to focus on their health, and to get out and do the things that will leave them feeling good.
JOURNALIST: Do we find that women often don't prioritise their health?
BRUCE: We do. We find that women rarely put themselves first very often. Women are caring, women are working, women are really supporting other people in their lives as well where, very often, they don’t have check-ups.
JOURNALIST: And I guess, what are the long term impacts of not prioritising your health, especially as a woman?
BRUCE: If you don't prioritise your own health, especially as a woman, then it means that you are likely going to the doctor later than you should. It means you are not getting diagnosed with preventative health issues later than you should, and it delays treatment and care. And it means that some of your health concerns, which may have been preventable, can become quite serious if you don't seek preventative health care.
JOURNALIST: Lovely, thank you so much. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: May I ask one question?
JOURNALIST: We saw the new firearms laws passed in parliament in Tasmania yesterday - at least, sorry, the lower house. What's your reaction to the fact that the gun caps didn't get up?
WHITE: What we see, and across the country, is a different approach from different states and territories. What we've been pleased to see in Tasmania is that they have agreed to sign up to the bulk of the national reforms. And this is really important, because we know after the Bondi terror attack that there are a number of issues that we need to improve, including information sharing, which has been one of the primary focuses for our government. Now, what states and territories decide to do with respect to their gun laws really is a matter for them, and the Tasmanian Parliament is currently working through legislation about how they will update their gun laws.
JOURNALIST: Certainly after Bondi there was a call, and National Cabinet seemed to agree, that they would at least consider caps on the number of firearms individuals can own. What's your take? Do you think caps would have been better in Tasmania?
WHITE: It's a decision for the Tasmanian Parliament, and I understand they had a vote on it yesterday. They'll send that legislation through to the upper house. We will work with the government, regardless of what that final piece of legislation looks like on the measures where we do have agreement. Because ultimately, we need to make sure that we can respond to a terrorist attack in a way that sees an update to Australia's gun laws, particularly when it comes to the registry, particularly when it comes to the sharing of information.
JOURNALIST: What kind of impact will it have if that the fact that the lower house has not gone ahead with caps? Will have any impact on the negotiations over the gun buyback scheme that I believe the Federal Government and the Tasmanian Government is still discussing?
WHITE: We've landed an agreement with one state for the cost-sharing agreement for the national buyback scheme. There are negotiations ongoing with other states and territories, and that includes Tasmania. We remain committed to that process because regardless of the outcome of the Tasmanian Parliament, there may still be people, because of the changes and categorisations of certain firearms, who may wish to hand their guns in. And I think it’s important in those instances, people are appropriately remunerated.
JOURNALIST: What's stopping the two parties agreeing to the gun buyback scheme at this stage?
WHITE: I’m not involved in those discussions, I’m sorry.
JOURNALIST: Thank you