Budget 2024: Healthcare Bodies Say Budget a ‘Missed Opportunity’ to Fix System Issues

The federal budget is a “missed opportunity” to address health system issues and rural health equity, several health organisations said. “More urgent care clinics is not a long-term strategic solution, and the government keeps looking to fund more of them without proper evaluation of their impact. What we need is reform that enables general practice to deliver the primary care that our patients need, not piecemeal announcements and changes that further fragment the system,” Australian Medical Association (AMA) President Professor Steve Robson said. Among the healthcare priorities of the budget is investing $227 million (US$152 million) to add 29 Medicare Urgent Care Centres (UCCs) to ensure that essential services are available to more communities across Australia, fully bulk-billed without the long wait in busy hospital emergency departments....