With the recent NSW election, Chris Minns takes the helm and Labour gets a chance to implement its Fresh Start Plan. We take a look at what that will mean for NSW and whether it can repair the fractured healthcare system.
At a Federal level, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is currently leading a shake up of the current healthcare system by way of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce as discussed in our article here.
At state level, the recent election change in NSW means that after 12 years of a Liberal government, it is Labour’s turn to try to turn the current healthcare crisis around.
Chris Minns, the NSW Labour Leader and now our new NSW Premier pledged to repair and rebuild our health system. https://www.racp.edu.au/docs/default-source/advocacy-library/ The key areas for healthcare investment are:
Workforce
Labour promises to:
- introduce enforceable minimum Safe Staffing levels statewide starting with emergency departments and extending to other areas as it is rolled out. This is a response to the plea for help from nurses and midwives to address the current staffing crisis. The proposal is for an additional 1,2000 nurses and midwives in the first four years which is expected to deliver better care in a more cost-effective way.
- hire an additional 500 paramedics in rural and regional NSW together with upskilling existing paramedics to ease pressure on regional hospitals and reduce ambulance waiting times; and
- abolish the wages cap introduced by the Liberal National Government to enhance productivity growth
Capacity
- Hospital beds – if you live in greater Sydney or in the Eurobodalla area, you will benefit from new hospital beds, upgrades and in some cases, a new hospital. This focus on hospital beds is to address the loss of 365 beds in NSW over the last 12 years during which Victoria and Queensland both gained significant bed capacity.
Women’s Health
- Doubling the level of funding for Women’s Health Centres to $100M over five years, enabling these centres to continue to support 50,000 women a year. Locally, this includes the Hunter Women’s Centre based in Mayfield.
- Free access to a breast cancer nurse for every individual suffering from breast cancer by increasing state funding from 8 to 45 specially trained McGrath nurses
Although much of the hospital funding at least, is centred around Sydney, the measures to address workforce shortages apply statewide and it’s encouraging at last to see a focus on addressing the shortfalls in regional and rural NSW. Only time will tell whether Labour can deliver the fresh start it promises.
