Labor launches free helpline and telehealth service

Australians will be able to call a national 24/7 health advice line and access an after-hours GP via telehealth free-of-charge, as part of Anthony Albanese’s final bid to bolster Labor’s health credentials before the election.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail. Launceston suburb of Punchbowl in the electorate of Bass joined by: Federal Labor's Candidate for Bass, Jess Teesdale Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Australians will be able to call a national 24/7 health advice line and access an after-hours GP via telehealth free-of-charge, as part of Anthony Albanese’s final bid to bolster Labor’s health credentials before the election.

Dubbed 1800MEDICARE, the helpline is aimed at taking pressure off the hospital system by giving Australians a way to seek medical treatment outside of work hours without needing to visit the emergency department or an urgent care clinic.

The Prime Minister will make the $204m announcement at a rally in Western Sydney on Sunday morning, declaring 1800MEDICARE will “bring new security and peace of mind to people all over Australia”.

“If it’s late at night and your child is running a temperature you’re worried about or has a cough that sounds like it’s getting worse, if you know your elderly parent needs help, even though they’re insisting they’re OK, that trained, expert advice is just at the other end of the phone,” he will say in his speech on Sunday.

“This will take further pressure off people – and off public hospitals.

“And, in conjunction with our plan to open 50 more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, it will ensure that free urgent care is within a 20-minute drive away for four out every five Australians and just a phone call away for every Australian.”

Should it be re-elected on May 3, Labor will use the $204m investment to improve existing Healthdirect services and expand them to every state and territory, under one consistent national service called 1800MEDICARE.

A patient in need of urgent GP care that can’t wait until their regular GP is available can call a triage nurse via the helpline, who will connect them to a free telehealth session with a 1800MEDICARE GP via phone or video, available all weekend and weeknights between 6pm and 8am.

A doctor can then provide free care including an emergency prescription or treatment of illness or injury, preventing a patient from becoming one of the 250,000 Australians unnecessarily visiting the ED each year.

Mr Albanese will invoke the US, which is viewed particularly negatively by Australians since Donald Trump imposed his tariffs, as part of his pitch on Sunday.

“American-style healthcare is decided by what treatment you can afford. In Australia, under Labor, it’s about the care you need,” he will say.

“That’s the meaning of Medicare. We built it, we believe in it, we will protect it and strengthen it.

“And – as sure as night follows day – the Liberals will cut it.”

The announcement comes off the back of an $8.5bn investment in Medicare to boost bulk billing rates, unveiled in Tasmania at the start of the campaign.

Peter Dutton matched the Medicare investment and has sought to differentiate his offering from Labor’s by arguing the Coalition is taking mental health more seriously than the government.

The Opposition leader and Liberal frontbenchers have slammed the government for its ‘Mediscare’ campaign, accusing Mr Albanese of being a “political vulture” by claiming the Coalition would cut the scheme.