REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: Well, thank you for coming here today. I'm joined by Erica, who's the practice manager of the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic here in Sorell. Our Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across Tasmania, of which we have eight, have now seen over 200,000 Tasmanians since they first opened their doors. This is a significant milestone that demonstrates the value that urgent care clinics bring to the Tasmanian health system. The fact that 200,000 Tasmanians have used them does illustrate very clearly that this is taking pressure off our major hospitals but also providing access to care for people who might not otherwise have been able to easily receive that care.
We know about one-third of all presentations happen after 5 PM on a weekday and about a quarter of all presentations happen on a weekend. And a lot of the time, this is because of sporting activities that are occurring when people are training or playing games on the weekend and also because children in particular, who make up about a quarter of all presentations, tend to fall unwell at times of the day or days of the week that are not when usual GP services are available. So, it's an incredibly important convenience for a lot of families. And I know we've got some young girls who are going to share their stories today, Taylor and Lily, who have used the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic here in Sorell.
Now, this Medicare Urgent Care Clinic that we're in today at Sorell opened at Christmas time and already has seen 7500 patients. This has meant people in this region from down as far as Nubeena and Triabunna and Swansea have been able to come here rather than going to Hobart to access urgent healthcare instead of putting further pressure on the emergency department. And that makes a big difference to people. It's made a big difference to thousands of Tasmanians who are living in this part of the state, but right across the state, 200,000 Tasmanians have benefited.
I'm going to ask Erica to speak about what's happening here because as you can see, it is a construction site, and I'm really proud that this clinic, which is a family-owned clinic, is expanding to be able to provide this service and offer even greater access to care right here in Sorell.
ERICA STAINER, PRACTICE MANAGER, SORELL MEDICARE URGENT CARE CLINIC: So I'm also a registered nurse, and I also work clinically here in the urgent care as well. Since we've opened in December, as Rebecca said, we've seen 7500 patients, averaging about the mid-40 patients per day. We see anything from kind of basic sprains, strains, cold and flu, and any other minor illness if you're unable to get into your GP. We are open seven days a week, 8 AM till 10 PM and we haven't had any closures in those nine months that we've been open. We're really excited about the local workforce and the skill set that we've been able to build here. We operate with a fully clinical model, so we've got a combination of paramedics, registered nurses, enrolled nurses, and doctor all working. So from your first port of contact, you're meeting a nurse that's specially trained in urgent care. We are in a priority system. So we look at seeing patients by triage when you come in. So we generally see the most urgent patient first.
Excitingly, we're about to move into a new purpose-built urgent care, which is going to be really important as we move, for patient satisfaction, flows, efficiency and safety. So, hopefully from September when patients start to enter our urgent care, it'll look a little bit different to what it has over the last few months. You'll turn right when you enter the door and you'll see a purpose-built urgent care. We will have dedicated X-ray facilities going forward. Watch this space. But they will be coming in the not-too-distant future.
JOURNALIST: When you expand your facility, will that mean you'll be able to open for longer as well, so expanding the opening hours, or will they stay the same?
STAINER: Our main opening hours will continue to be 8 AM till 10 PM.
JOURNALIST: For sure. And obviously, you can deal with a lot of things here, but there's also a lot of things you can't deal with. Does the X-ray machine help you kind of expand what you're able to help treat?
STAINER: Currently, it won't necessarily expand what we're able to help treat, but it will help us with our efficiencies in in treating those patients. So, at the moment without X-ray, we're having to do referrals up to Rosny. Our patients have to travel from Rosny then back to us for the results. What will happen is that we'll be able to do all of that right here once we've got X-ray. So they'll be able to be seen, X-rayed, cast, and then have appropriate follow-up put in place.
JOURNALIST: Are you going to put on more medical professionals to run this expansion?
STAINER: We are obviously always looking at our figures and our patients that are coming in. If our demand continues to increase, then we probably will need to look at putting on more doctors or potentially nurse practitioners in the space.
JOURNALIST: What has it meant to the employment here, with all the people that you are employing here? How many jobs have you created, and do most of those people live here?
STAINER: Fabulous question. So I think I'm probably a great example of that. I'm a local that lives in the community. I've lived in the community my whole life. And what urgent care has actually given me is the opportunity to have a bit more work-life balance, work close to home and bring my high acuity skill set into the community and to really give back to the community. Most of our team that we now have, we've got a full local permanent team, it's all given them the same opportunity, which is really excellent.
JOURNALIST: How long, just typically, do patients spend waiting to get care at the urgent care clinic?
STAINER: Great question. So ideally, we want patients in and out as quickly as they can be obviously. They should be checked in and triaged by a registered nurse or paramedic within their first 15 minutes of entering the building. Ideally then, they'll see a doctor based on their triage scale. So some of those patients, we deem safe to wait up to two hours. Some we deem only safe to wait up to 30 minutes.
JOURNALIST: How far do patients travel to attend this urgent care clinic?
STAINER: Yeah. Another great question. As Rebecca said, we capture all the way down into the Peninsula and up into the East Coast. We quite often get a lot of Orford, Triabunna coming down to us. We are capturing a lot of the eastern shore as well. So we're seeing a lot of Glebe Hill, a lot of Howrah, a lot of Lauderdale also trekking this way as a preference to trekking over the bridge and potentially long wait times over there. We also get a lot of interstate and international visitors as they kind of come off the airport and are transiting through as a bit of a tourist route.
JOURNALIST: It must be quite frustrating to have to refer people elsewhere then if they're already coming from quite far away.
STAINER: Yeah, yeah, it is. I think we've got quite robust processes in terms of triage assessment. A lot of it is actually about education to the community about what other services are actually available and how to access urgent care, general care, and emergency care appropriately.
JOURNALIST: You’ve both used the urgent care clinic. Can you tell us how that came about and what experience you had?
LILY FOSTER: So I came to urgent care because I fell over at netball, and we just decided to come here because last time we went to the hospital it was, like, nearly an eight hour wait. Here it was actually pretty good. We got to talk to the staff. They were very friendly, and we bonded over things like Netball and the SSN final coming up.
JOURNALIST: And how quickly did it take you to be assessed and out of here?
FOSTER: It was only a couple hours.
JOURNALIST: How scary was it in the hospital environment compared to in here?
FOSTER: So I'm neurodivergent, so I find hospitals very overstimulating for me, so I get pretty nervous and pretty shaken there sometimes.
JOURNALIST: So do you feel more comfortable coming to this urgent care clinic?
FOSTER: Yes, I do.
JOURNALIST: How was the treatment itself that you received?
FOSTER: It was pretty good. We just received a referral for an x-ray, and that's about it.
JOURNALIST: And what would you say about the environment here that makes it good?
FOSTER: It was very quiet and chill, and that's just what I liked about it.
JOURNALIST: What about your experience?
TAYLOR CORNISH: I fell over and hurt my knee at netball, so we came here. It was really quick, and all the staff were really nice and helpful.
JOURNALIST: And compared to going to hospital? Tell us about that.
CORNISH: They seem to actually care and, like, want to help you more, or whatever.
[Laughter]
JOURNALIST: I think we were about to ask the same thing. And they also have that local knowledge – did you appreciate that too, that they knew a little bit about your netball team?
CORNISH: Yeah, it was.
JOURNALIST: Were you playing in the same netball team, or separate ones?
FOSTER: Separate ones – we’re in different age divisions.
JOURNALIST: Lovely. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: We've received a lot of feedback from people who have tried to get into urgent care clinics, mainly a lot about their children, especially babies. What kind of challenges are we seeing in that space, and can we expect that to be improved?
WHITE: It's really important that people know they can take their babies to a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, and you don't have to have a Medicare card to do that, because we know that sometimes it can take a while for it to be issued. So there's been a really clear directive provided by the Primary Health Network here in Tasmania to our eight Medicare Urgent Care Clinics just to make that really clear. We don't want parents turned away when they're presenting to an urgent care clinic. It can be a stressful enough time as it is, and it's really vital that they receive attention and care.
JOURNALIST: What will be the next development in terms of urgent care clinics in Tasmania?
WHITE: So we've just recently stood up all 137 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across the country that we promised at the last election, and we're seeing great results from that. They are entirely free, and here in Tasmania we've seen 200,000 people use them. I'd love to see more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, and I'm sure across the country I've got colleagues who feel the same way. We've seen the Australian community respond really positively to this, and we've made them a permanent part of our healthcare system now. So under a Labor government, you'll continue to see us invest in Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. And I'm sure, like other colleagues, we'll be lobbying the Health Minister to expand the network.
JOURNALIST: The 200,000 presentations, Is that people just- that walk through the door, or people that are actually seen? Because there is a difference between people that leave if they have to wait a number of hours.
WHITE: That have been seen.
JOURNALIST: Minister, will the federal government fund the Tasmania buyback scheme now that you've seen the full details of the legislation that’s been tabled before parliament? There’s no cap on numbers, it's grandfathered. State Labor says that this is a betrayal of Tasmania and of community safety. In all good conscience. can the federal government fund a buyback scheme?
WHITE: There's a National Cabinet meeting happening next Wednesday, and all premiers and chief ministers will be sitting down with the Prime Minister to discuss this as one of the items on the agenda. That's my understanding. I'm sure there will be a negotiation that still needs to take place with respect to the contribution the federal government makes with jurisdictions to fund any buyback scheme.
JOURNALIST: Given you’ve seen it, you understand the potency of gun politics in Tasmania. in all good conscience, can the federal government put money aside to a scheme that's been described as betrayal?
WHITE: We've seen across the country different approaches from different jurisdictions. I am pleased the Tasmanian Government has agreed to participate in the National Gun Buyback Scheme, and also to continue to progress through legislation the reforms that are necessary to make sure that the components out of the National Cabinet Agreement are legislated for, particularly when it comes to Australian citizenship, their classifications of firearms, and for us to be able to share information, because that was one of the key recommendations, that we need to be able to share information about high risk individuals across the country and not have that siloed into jurisdictional responsibilities.
So those things are really important. We have seen some lags and delays from other jurisdictions. I think, at least in this instance, Tasmania is moving. There'll be further conversations that need to take place, noting this legislation hasn't gone to the parliament yet in Tasmania for debate, it's simply been presented. So we don't know what it will look like once it's being voted on.
JOURNALIST: Is it hypocritical to fund a buyback scheme that has grandfathered these clauses? Like, someone who is a foreigner now and has these guns, there's no requirement for them to hand them back?
WHITE: Well, that's a decision the Tasmanian Government has made. I know this is legislation that's come to the parliament, and the parliamentarians in the Tasmanian parliament will vote on this. I am sure there will be quite robust debate and no doubt amendments, so it's a bit pre-emptive to know what the final design of that legislation looks like at this stage.
But I will say that next week at National Cabinet there will be discussions between the Premier and the Prime Minister and other jurisdictions about this, and how we can have a system across the country that works in everyone's best interest.
JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] are you happy with it?
WHITE: I'm pleased to see the Tasmanian Government's making some steps towards implementing what was agreed at National Cabinet. I think that's the first thing to note here.
JOURNALIST: Was it agreed at National Cabinet though? What all state governments agreed to at National Cabinet originally was for a robust buyback scheme.
WHITE: And we've seen different approaches taken by different jurisdictions, including some who are reluctant to progress that. At least here in Tasmania, we are seeing the Tasmanian Government take some steps forward. It's up to the Tasmanian parliament to determine whether or not they're satisfied by that, and they will be the ones who vote on this legislation. It won't be a matter for me to vote on. I'm not in that parliament. It's up to them to decide how they tackle this.
JOURNALIST: It will be the federal government helping to fund a buyback scheme, and people would wonder, is that not hypocritical?
WHITE: It will be up to the Prime Minister next week to talk to his state colleagues about how they progress the national buyback scheme and any funding arrangements.
JOURNALIST: I’ll just ask one on firearms. What feedback have you heard from your constituents about firearms laws? Do they want a cap on guns in Tasmania?
WHITE: I think there’s been quite a variety of views on this, as you would expect. It is an issue that people approach from different perspectives, whether you’re a landowner that’s managing livestock and wildlife, or whether you’re someone who lives in the city and has never seen a gun or never had any interest in touching a gun. So, there’s a variety of different lived experiences here that all have to be reflected when you consider legislation because this will affect how our community deals with the matter of gun safety, but also how we deal with illegal guns in our community, and also how we support farmers and others who use guns and firearms for recreational purposes to continue to have access to those as legal weapons and as law-abiding firearms users.
JOURNALIST: Do you have a position on caps on guns?
WHITE: No, this is a matter for the Tasmanian parliament.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the federal government should have used $70 million in taxpayers' money to bankroll the sale of Rushy Lagoon?
WHITE: I think we need to put a few facts on the table here about this matter. And I do know that there has been a gap in information for a lot of Tasmanians, and I think that's regrettable because the company that's entered into this deal to purchase the land from another foreign investor has been owned by a foreign company for 30 years. I think it has left a lot of Tasmanians wondering what was happening. And in that time, thankfully a lot more facts have come to light. It is really vital to note a couple of things. This property will continue to graze cattle. There will be 6000 head of cattle that still run on this property, and I understand the herd might grow. That land will not be planted out for trees and I think a lot of people were genuinely worried about that. There's also been more information shared by the company about what their future plans are when it comes to planting trees on that property.
Now, the federal government didn't have a role here, it was the Clean Energy Finance Corporation that has decided to become a joint equity partner. So the Australian taxpayer has helped to purchase that land, but it will get the return on that investment. It isn't propping up a foreign owned business to purchase the land. The Australian taxpayer has a stake in that land. And this is the first time the Australian taxpayer or an Australian has had a stake in that land for 30 years because it has been under foreign ownership for 30 years.
So, I think there are more details that have now become available and that is a good thing, because as I've spoken to members of my community about this who’ve raised genuine concerns, and we've been able to share some more details about this. There has been an increased level of reassurance that it will continue to operate as a farming enterprise, that there won't be a reduction in herd numbers and that the Tasmanian taxpayer, the Australian taxpayer will get a return on any investment.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned the word regrettable. Are you conceding that the federal government should have done more earlier on to be more transparent about the sale of the land?
WHITE: I think Gresham House could have done a much better job of communicating with the Tasmanian community about their intentions and be more transparent with people in the northeast about what they plan to do with that land. There was a period of time there where there was no information, and in that vacuum a lot of people made a lot of assumptions. And it scared a lot of people and caused a lot of unnecessary concern. They have an obligation now to be really transparent with people in the northeast about the timelines for when they plan to undertake work on that property, when the jobs will become available and to do that in a manner that is respectful to the genuine worries that people have shared.
JOURNALIST: Has Gresham House given the government that assurance that they will now do that?
WHITE: I have been in contact with Gresham House and I know that their local member for Bass, Jess Teesdale has as well, to convey our very strong views that they need to make sure they communicate clearly with the community and to do that regularly. They have of course committed to hold a number of community forums in the northeast, and I encourage people to attend those.
JOURNALIST: I don’t suppose you have a bird flu update for us. Obviously, we had 11 cases over a day ago now. Do you have anything to add to that, especially considering the 28 penguins that have died?
WHITE: Only on the penguins. I understand that there hasn't been a confirmation that it's bird flu, that is work that's still being tested through laboratories, but of course we are very worried that it might be bird flu and we are seeing this on Tasmanian shores and mainland shores. The Australian Government has had two years and has done a lot of work to prepare as we've seen this impact on continents around the rest of the world, including vaccinating at risk populations and also making sure we're investing across Tasmania at sites like Tasmania Zoo, and east coast and other locations where they've got vulnerable populations that they can protect those birds from any impacts of bird flu.
JOURNALIST: If I could on another issue, the federal government says it wants Australia to be a country that builds things. Is that just applicable for the mainland, or Tasmania as well?
WHITE: We’ve been very serious about supporting investment here in Tasmania. I'm the Member for Lyons. In my electorate, the Boyer Paper Mill has had investment of $24 million that has secured the jobs on that site, helping to decarbonise but also just very recently create a brand new paper product which is copy paper, which is the first time in a very long time that Australia's been able to produce copy paper. That'll be available for people to use to put in their printers and print on Australian made paper.
JOURNALIST: On Bell Bay Aluminium though, is the federal government going to support that plant in the same manner that it's supporting Tomago in New South Wales? Because the perception is that it's being very hands off here in Tasmania.
WHITE: Again, a couple of things that I think are important for context here. The first is the main issue that is confronting Bell Bay Aluminium is that they do not have a power purchase agreement with Hydro. We have a state-owned energy company in Tasmania. It’s established to provide the cheapest possible power to Tasmanian consumers and to businesses. What Bell Bay needs right now, is an agreement with Hydro for an energy supply at a price that means they can continue to operate here. There is an obligation here on the Tasmanian Energy Minister and Treasurer to make sure that they direct Hydro to engage with Bell Bay Aluminium so they can get a deal. This is too important for them to walk away from or to point fingers at somebody else. It sits squarely within their remit and responsibility.
The federal government can't negotiate on behalf of Hydro to strike a power price agreement with Bell Bay Aluminium. Only the Tasmanian government can do that, and until they do that, there is very little that the federal government can intervene with here.
JOURNALIST: Can the federal government say that it is willing to be a participant in this process, in helping secure a power deal?
WHITE: If the Tasmanian government is more interested in selling power to a data centre because they can get more money for it, and watching Bell Bay fall over, they are the ones that have to wear the consequences for that. If you look in the forward estimates for the Tasmanian budget, you see an uplift in dividends from Hydro Tasmania over the next couple of years. Where does that come from? If not, because they are diverting power that currently goes to fund major industrials to getting a higher price from funding data centres to establish in this state. I think we have to call that out and say that for what it is. The Tasmanian government is flirting with selling power to data centres instead of funding Bell Bay Aluminium and other major industrials who provide hundreds of jobs and energy security for our state. They are the ones that have to deal with Bell Bay Aluminium and find an agreement here. It was under Labor that we established Hydro in this state, primarily to support major industrial to set up in Tasmania. It was Eric Reece, who was the promiser of development for Hydro with a catchphrase that was: progress is development for the greater good. The greater good here is keeping Bell Bay in Tasmania.