The APA welcomes the Opposition’s commitment to Aged Care health system reform and a strong, properly funded public health system, with Medicare as its backbone.

In the 2022-23 Federal Budget, the Morrison Government failed to set the fair foundations we need for health equity and access. In contrast, in his budget reply speech, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, outlined a strong health plan including his intent to put “security, dignity, quality and humanity” back into aged care pledging to spend $2.5 billion to fix an aged care system in crisis.

“The position and priorities offered by Labor, in unveiling a package of major aged care reforms, as the centrepiece of his pre-election Budget reply, and commitment to the NDIS and strengthening Medicare, sets us back on a reform pathway that would make a real difference for so many Australians unable to access the care they need.” APA National President Scott Willis said.

“Health inequity is a longstanding challenge, and one that certainly didn’t arrive with the pandemic. A worsening of inequality is now evident and this is deeply embedded in our structural and health system failures.

“We need to move beyond traditional structures and conventional primary care towards more integrated care models that include allied health services such as physiotherapy.

“Real primary care reform and a properly funded public health system would see a significant expansion of Medicare.

“Real reform would allow for stronger investment in publicly funded physiotherapy to allow access to physiotherapy as first contact practitioners.

“Our health system fails to facilitate this essential care and patients are not funded to access physiotherapy services beyond current and very limited MBS chronic disease items,” Mr Willis said.

“Labor’s commitment to mandate that every Australian living in aged care receives a minimum of 215 minutes of care per day, as recommended by the Royal Commission, is welcomed. However, we await the detail to see the role of physiotherapy and allied health in this care. 

“The APA also welcomes Labor’s commitments on integrity and accountability, and new funding, to better support the aged care sector.

“Neither the LNP or Labor used their Budget speeches to address easy reform fixes that would significantly improve the patient journey and provide savings to the health system.

“A key shift would be to allow physiotherapists to directly refer to the most suitable medical practitioner and to request imaging for musculoskeletal conditions.

“Similarly, in enabling more multidisciplinary team-based care, there is a need for stronger measures to deliver structural transformations by funding the full team.

“But nationally we still await fundamental reform to provide a way forward to overcome the barriers to integrated multidisciplinary team-based care.

Mr Willis said that health reform starts with bringing fairness back and lifting the barriers to access.

“Labor has provided a solid start towards advancing health equity in outlining a plan that would set some solid foundations for the future and we look forward to seeing the detail in the coming weeks,” he said.

For more information and to read the APA submission please click here.

-ENDS-

Scott Willis is available for further comment.