ANDREW GILES, MEMBER FOR SCULLIN: It's so great to have my friend, Rebecca White, here in Epping again at this amazing place - an Urgent Care Centre, the Epping Medical and Dental Centre, and importantly, the Pelvic Pain and Endo Clinic, which has made such a difference to the lives of so many women in the Northern Suburbs. I'm thrilled that Rebecca, since coming into the portfolio with responsibility in women’s health, has taken such a keen interest in the circumstances of women in the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne and women right around the country. Recognising, as we all do in the Albanese Government, that we’ve got so much more to do to ensure health equity for women in Australia. I'm really excited though that you’ve come back Rebecca to make a really significant announcement today.
REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: Thank you so much, Andrew, and thanks everybody for having us in your clinic again. It is wonderful to see you.
I am really thrilled to be able to continue the work that has been happening in the Albanese-Labor Government’s efforts to strengthen and improve women's health. We have an almost $800 million Women's Health Package that was announced as part of the Budget, and in that, it includes support for our endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics. I'm pleased to announce today that we have expanded the service by a further 11 clinics across the country, making a total of 33 clinics now available to provide endometriosis and pelvic pain support to women right around Australia.
In addition to providing support for endometriosis and pelvic pain, these clinics will also expand support services for perimenopause and menopause, so that women right around the country can access appropriate specialised care to support them whether they're dealing with pelvic pain or endometriosis or menopause. Because we know, for far too long, women have felt ignored, they've been unable to access the healthcare that they need, and often, it's been too expensive for them to be able to get in their local community. The expansion of our endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics is all about providing affordable, appropriate care to women that's more closely located to where they live.
The 11 new sites include three in Victoria, three in New South Wales, four in Queensland, and one in Western Australia. So, across the country, we now have representation in every single Primary Health Network, which means that women, no matter where they live, should be able to access a specialised women's health service close to where they are. And further to that, we've also been bolstering the workforce, supporting them with information, so that they can treat women. So that if you go into your GP, you should be able to have a conversation about menopause, perimenopause and endometriosis. And we've seen improvements for women's health outcomes as a result of this investment.
WHITE: In addition to the Women's Health Package and providing access to services such as the endo and pelvic pain clinic, we've also made more medicines available through the PBS. Which means that in Australia women have saved over $40 million since 1 May because they've been able to access endometriosis medicine, they’ve been able to access more contraception, they’ve been able to access menopause medicine for the first time in 30 years in some cases on the PBS. And this has made a massive difference to women's available access- it's made a massive difference for women's ability to access affordable treatments, and it's also helped our clinicians to be able to provide a pathway for women so that they can deal with symptoms that they have long been suffering with and sometimes for years.
DR SNEHA WADHWANI, EVOCA WOMEN'S HEALTH: We thank the Government for the investment in this space. As women's healthcare providers, we know all too much how important this is. We’ve seen in a study published earlier this year that, with the advent of the endometriosis and pelvic pain funding for clinics in primary care, the average wait time to diagnosis has actually reduced from an average of seven years to 2.5 years. which is a massive change in this space. Further to that, we're also seeing that women are now able to access some of those essential therapies through the PBS-listed medications, not just in the endometriosis and pelvic pain space but, as we said, in menopause, and importantly, in those long-acting reversible contraceptive services. We know in that space that those can actually form a really important component of endometriosis and pelvic pain symptom and treatment control and therefore being able to deliver these services with little or no cost to patients is a game-changer for us in this space. We look forward to introducing more endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics and expanding those services to menopause and also looking at other disease areas that are crucial to manage in women, such as PCOS and cardiovascular health. Fifty per cent of our population are women, and we know that looking after them has significant benefits both to the individual but to communities and the economy as well. So, we're here to celebrate with them.