Source : Perth Now news
The NSW government is looking at the entire health portfolio to deliver price relief as officials gear up for a gruelling state budget set to be dominated by cost of living and an economic shockwave set off by the US and Israel’s war on Iran, Health Minister Ryan Park has revealed.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey will deliver the NSW budget later this month under changed circumstances for Australia’s most populous state, with lower economic growth forecast off the back of an expected $8bn dip in stamp duty and land tax.
For Mr Park, whose portfolio is one of the state’s most expensive, the budget shock comes in the midst of an expansive reform agenda, driven by a cross-cabinet push for practical cost-of-living relief in the health sector, including expanding access through general practitioners and pharmacists to ADHD treatments and the contraceptive pill.
Speaking exclusively with the NewsWire, Mr Park said the department had “a wide berth looking at the entire portfolio as we speak” in regard to delivering cheaper services.
“It’s a critical budget – absolutely critical, to be blunt,” Mr Park said.
He said he “put a lens of high cost-of-living pressures” over policy discussions.
“I don’t see myself anymore as just being responsible for delivering the most accessible health care services I can,” he said.
“I’ve got to have a look at how I can make these more affordable because what I don’t want is a situation – which no doubt is happening in some families – is people making decisions to put off health care because of these cost-of-living challenges.”
Mr Park said those concerns leant importance to new and expanded services in NSW, including virtual care, a telehealth-style primary health service, and urgent care clinics – all of which are bulk-billed.
“My focus has probably over the past 12 months moved from ‘I need to try and give NSW the best possible access to healthcare services’ – yes, that’s my core mission – to ‘how can we look at what we’re doing and reduce the financial burden on families doing it tough?’” he said.
“That’s why we’ve moved to some of these reforms that have simply not been thought of or not possible in the past, but we’ve had to move there to try and increase both accessibility but also to take pressure off family budgets.”
Noting expanded roles for GPs, including the prescribing of ADHD medicine, Mr Park said “this will be part of a reform piece I hope is continued long into the future”.
“Because, that’s the best way of delivering health services,” he said.
“It means a change in thinking … but it’s particularly important now given the challenges people and family budgets are facing.”
Under recent reforms, eligible women in NSW can be prescribed the contraceptive pill by a pharmacist.
Earlier, the NSW government enabled eligible trained GPs to prescribe ADHD medication, rather than requiring a specialist visit.
Hospitals under pressure
At the apex of NSW’s health system is its hospitals.
The most recent Bureau of Health Information quarterly report found emergency department (ED) attendances were on the rise.
As were ED wait times and the number of admitted patients.
The surge, Mr Park said, was linked to multiple factors, including an increase in lower-need patients but also an increase in patients who arrived at hospital sicker than they may otherwise have been.
“Why are we seeing more? Probably because of a lack of primary care means people with chronic conditions are often not getting access to a GP at the regular intervals that perhaps 20 years ago they were,” he said.
“That means, when they present to a hospital with a chronic condition they may have, they’re a lot sicker.”
A 2024 NSW government report found one in four patients attending the ED would have preferred going to a GP.
Mr Park said the intersection between hospital presentations and cost of living was “huge”.
“What we try to do with things like urgent care services and virtual care services is change the culture that people over the last few years have got which … well, if there’s no GP, or we can’t get in for three weeks, or it’s $140 bill, we’re just gonna go down to the ED and try our hand,” he said.
“EDs were never funded for that, nor are they set up for that.”
Mr Park said alternatives invested in by the government, including virtual care and the Health Direct 1800 number, created an “alternative pathway” for lower-level patients, including time or money-stretched families.
In recent months, Mr Park has also voiced his frustration at continued bed block affecting thousands of hospital beds across NSW.
He has called on the Albanese government to fast-track measures aimed at getting aged care and NDIS patients, who are under the purview of commonwealth agencies, into out-of-hospital care quicker.
For its part, the Albanese government has pledged to reform both the aged care and NDIS systems.
