Kristina Keneally’s claim over long wait at Medicare called out by Liberal MPs as a ‘sham’
KRISTINA Keneally’s claim she was told to wait with her son for more than an hour at a Medicare office before the October long weekend has been called into question, with official figures showing the longest average wait time during that week was just 17 minutes.
NSW
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KRISTINA Keneally’s claim she was told to wait with her son for more than an hour at a Medicare office before the October long weekend has been called into question, with official figures showing the longest average wait time during that week was just 17 minutes.
Human Services Department data obtained by The Daily Telegraph shows that daily waiting times for service at Top Ryde ranged from 10 minutes 58 seconds on Wednesday, September 25, to 16 minutes 58 seconds on Friday, September 29 — far lower than the hour-long ordeal described by Ms Keneally during Labor’s Bennelong by-election campaign launch.
Health Minister Greg Hunt and Human Services Minister Alan Tudge both demanded Ms Keneally explain herself.
Mr Hunt said the former NSW premier “has some serious questions to answer”.
Mr Tudge said: “You cannot trust a single thing Labor says about Medicare.”
Labor has moved to make the December 16 by-election a chance for voters to vent their frustration at the Turnbull government’s policies in health and education, repricing a campaign which casts the government as bad for Medicare.
Ms Keneally accused the Coalition of shutting the Medicare office in Eastwood — a policy that was introduced by Labor — leading to extensive queues at the Top Ryde office.
Yesterday she told The Daily Telegraph she stood by her claim.
“Of course you can keep wait times down if you turn people away and tell them to come back the following week — which is what happened to me and my son,” Ms Keneally said.
“The Liberal cuts to the Department of Human Services have meant that 55 million calls were unanswered last financial year and families like mine turned away … enough is enough.”
The government is moving to stop the damage from a highly effective Labor attack on its Medicare record, with new figures to be released today showing the bulk-billing rate rose to 85.9 per cent in the three months to September 30.
Mr Hunt said it was the highest bulk-billing rate ever achieved in that three-month period “and significantly higher than Labor’s 82.2 per cent when they were last in government”.
“The Turnbull government has also delivered a significant 88.5 per cent rate for bulk-billed GP visits in Bennelong — one of the highest rates in the country. It’s a major increase compared with Labor’s 85.4,” he said.