PRIORITIES AND ISSUES

In this election statement, we have outlined three priorities:

1. Support our health system

2. Support rural healthcare

3. Support doctors’ health and wellbeing

Within each priority, we’re asking the next government to address:

Support our health system

➜ Growing demand: We have a growing and ageing population that is increasingly presenting with complex co-morbidities and putting pressure on hospitals.

➜ Public hospital funding: The current funding split between the Commonwealth and States and Territories is compromising NSW’s ability to meet patient demand.

➜ Doctor workforce: There is a significant shortage of doctors, particularly in certain specialties.

➜ Elective surgery: Patients are waiting months, and sometimes years to access elective surgery.

➜ Care in the community: Ambulance ramping and access block are direct consequences of insufficient care in the community.

➜ Health at risk: Expanding the scope of pharmacy undermines general practice and contributes to fragmented care .

➜ Payroll tax: Payroll tax threatens the viability of medical practices and could result in reduced healthcare access for patients should practices be forced to close.

Support rural healthcare

➜ Specialist workforce: Rural and regional residents have reduced access to specialist care despite higher health needs.

➜ General practitioners (GP): Significant shortages of GPs in regional and rural areas result in delayed access to care and poorer health outcomes.

➜ Natural disasters: Rural health services should be recognised as essential services in the wake of natural disaster and provided with immediate grant funding.

Support doctors’ health and wellbeing

➜ Workplace stress: Doctors are facing significant levels of workplace stress leading to higher levels of burnout.

➜ Doctor-in-training fatigue: Almost half of doctors-in-training made a fatigue-induced error in 2022.

➜ Critical incidents: Doctors do not have sufficient support to help them cope with adverse patient outcomes, leading to higher levels of stress.