National Cabinet agrees to $2.2bn to boost access to primary healthcare

Pharmacists will be able to vaccinate children, and funding will be allocated to after-hours GPs in a $2.2bn budget spend aimed at improving access to primary healthcare.

Parents will be able to get their kids vaccinated at pharmacies for as little as $19 from next year as part of a $2.2bn budget spend aimed at improving access to primary care.

From July, the Commonwealth will also begin funding after-hours programs at GPs through Primary Health Networks, with priority given to meeting healthcare shortfalls in regional areas.

The government will also launch MyMedicare, a program which will give GPs block funding to help manage patients with chronic illnesses.

This service is designed to provide more holistic management of conditions, moving away from the current fee-for-service model in which GPs are paid per appointment.

Under this program hospitals will have to liaise with GPs who are responsible for people who have illnesses which frequently require hospitalisation. There will also be more money to make sure GPs are properly servicing patients in aged-care facilities.

Five-year-old Emil is vaccinated against the coronavirus. Picture: Getty Images

Speaking after a national cabinet meeting in Brisbane on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said leaders had welcomed the $2.2bn of practical measures to strengthen Medicare.

“One of the things that we need to do is to improve primary care delivery, so that it takes pressure off our public hospital systems around the country, and these reforms are practical and will make a difference,” he said.

Mr Albanese said the government was committed to supporting health workforces to work “at top of scope” including pharmacists, nurses and paramedics.

“We need to provide pharmacists with the opportunity to deliver the services that they’re capable of,” he said.

“That will provide support and income for community pharmacies, but it will also take pressure off our GPs and off that system as well in the primary healthcare network.”

He said the government was also committed to expanding the nursing workforce to improve access to primary care, as well as improving access to and delivery of after-hours primary care.

“That will include an incentive for doctors, for GPs, to stay open for longer hours that will be included in our budget when it’s handed down on May 9,” he said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns after National Cabinet. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Other measures aimed at reducing hospital admissions and taking the stress off GPs include money to attract 500 enrolled nurses back into the primary care workforce and 6000 new placements for student nurses.

Mr Albanese also announced a commitment to try to rein in growth in the cost of the NDIS to 8 per cent a year by 2028, down from the 12-14 per cent annual growth now.

In the short-term however, the government will spend an extra $720m in the budget to increase the NDIS’s capability, capacity and systems.

Housing ministers also agreed to work on ways of strengthening renters’ rights across the country.

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