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Speaker 1: A bit of a change of pace, because there's a

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Speaker 1: lot happening when it comes to health. We know. The

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Speaker 1: Royal Australian College of GPS has released its annual survey

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Speaker 1: of three thousand doctors, which found on average they were

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Speaker 1: putting in more time with patients, but a feeling undervalued

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Speaker 1: and stressed about their income. Now, the College says that

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Speaker 1: doctors have been forced to increase their fees because Medicare

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Speaker 1: rebates weren't keeping up with inflation, which is causing more

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Speaker 1: patients to delay or not see a GP. Now, that

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Speaker 1: is amongst plenty of other things happening at the moment

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Speaker 1: that we're keen damachat to doctor Robert Parker, the head

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Speaker 1: of the AMA about Good morning to you, doctor Parker.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show as always, Doctor Parker,

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Speaker 1: tell me, I mean when it comes to this latest research,

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Speaker 1: when it comes to people going to see their GPS,

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Speaker 1: how much are people paying in some cases?

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Speaker 2: Do you know? No, unfortunately, just gone back from a

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Speaker 2: couple of court differences and I'm not aware of the

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Speaker 2: current gap. But I suppose GPS again of probably I

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Speaker 2: don't know, maybe forty fifty dollars as a guest, I

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Speaker 2: know that Minister Butler is certainly in concert with the

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Speaker 2: AMA certainly increase the gap fee because of the significant

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Speaker 2: issues about people about things falling behind, people not go

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Speaker 2: to the GP's results. I'm not quite sure about catch

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Speaker 2: up effects they've been working or how it's been working.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean how big an impact is it? More

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Speaker 1: generally when you look at the health system though, if

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Speaker 1: people are delaying or not going to see their GPS.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting because I've just been reviewing their at

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Speaker 2: port you've quoted and they point out the cost of

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Speaker 2: how much the government gives to hoste public hospitals as

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Speaker 2: opposed to GPS. Overall, I think that the government gives

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Speaker 2: three and a half thousand dollars the hospitals for every Australian,

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Speaker 2: whereas they give GPS about four hundred and fifty dollars

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Speaker 2: for a re Australia. And we all know that the

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Speaker 2: best care is preventive care and the best people to

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Speaker 2: deliver the general practitioners. Hospital care is incredibly expensive, and

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Speaker 2: if care is not if people do not get their

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Speaker 2: chronic illnesses and other issues dealt with through general practice,

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Speaker 2: they turn to turn up an EDS and that's a

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Speaker 2: very expensive way of dealing with health with health issues.

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Speaker 1: And so I mean, I guess that's the tough part,

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Speaker 1: isn't it. If chronic illnesses and that kind of thing

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Speaker 1: aren't being dealt with, it then has a big impact

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Speaker 1: even on the hospital system.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're very well aware, Katie in the territory about

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Speaker 2: the chronic code yellows at RDH. And you know, just

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Speaker 2: another facet So people aren't going to GPS their illnesses deteriorate,

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Speaker 2: they turn up an d with acute exacerbations of quite

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Speaker 2: often serious exacerbations of illnesses and all of which then

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Speaker 2: adds to pressure on the hospitals. Yeah, and resulting in codeillows.

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Speaker 1: Now we know that, you know, with those code yellows,

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Speaker 1: as you touched on, it's been a big issue that

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Speaker 1: we've been grappling with in the NT for quite some time.

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Speaker 1: We then heard a little earlier in the week that

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Speaker 1: work is set to begin on this new thirty two

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Speaker 1: bed multi purpose water at Royal Darwin Hospital. Do you

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Speaker 1: have you heard much about that and what kind of

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Speaker 1: impact do you reckon that's going to have.

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Speaker 2: Well, the inform decision is not much And I mean

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Speaker 2: the other issue too is that apparently understand each bed

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Speaker 2: so you can you can put a bed in, and

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Speaker 2: the bed in itself has risenly extensive these days, but

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Speaker 2: the cost of staffing that bed is around about a

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Speaker 2: million dollars per year. So the government will have to

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Speaker 2: stump up an extra thirty two million dollars in recurrent funding,

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Speaker 2: as they will with the new mental health bed. So

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Speaker 2: the new government is looking at probably I mean, we're

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Speaker 2: already two hundred million dollars over the budget as he is,

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Speaker 2: but we're looking probably even with the new beds in

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Speaker 2: addition to capital cost of another hundred million dollars just

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Speaker 2: to basically staff the new mental health beds and that

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Speaker 2: new ward. So, I mean, the ward will add at

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Speaker 2: some adaptability in the hospital in ters of medical surgical capacity,

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Speaker 2: but it's going to put increasing pressure on the health

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Speaker 2: budget for the new government.

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Speaker 1: Well, and do you reckon that, like other positions going

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Speaker 1: to be easy to fill as well, doctor Parker, Or

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Speaker 1: are we already sort of struggling to fill some of

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Speaker 1: the jobs that we've got vacant within nt Health.

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Speaker 2: No, we're already struggling. You know, there's always been an

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Speaker 2: issue for NT Health whereas we've got a very young population,

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Speaker 2: of very transient population, and so it has been a

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Speaker 2: significant issue with workforce, which the Department's constantly working on

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Speaker 2: to try and enhance. There's a significant disconnect though. For example,

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Speaker 2: I was working recently with a really talented nurse when

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Speaker 2: I was visiting the prison now Springs, and she left

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Speaker 2: because she wasn't given stable accommodation. And I actually bore

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Speaker 2: it up with the CEO and said, you know, you're

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Speaker 2: trying to encourage people on one hand, but then you

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Speaker 2: boot them out after six months. And this person is said,

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Speaker 2: had stable accommodation would have stayed a significant contribution. So

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Speaker 2: it seems like one committee works on one thing, but

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Speaker 2: then another committee works on another. They don't seem to

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Speaker 2: be talking to each other, so you know, I mean, yeah,

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Speaker 2: so I don't know. We're going to continue that discussion

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Speaker 2: of this thing with the new government and the new

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Speaker 2: Health Department CEO.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and well, yeah, that's the other part of the

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Speaker 1: whole discussion, isn't it, doctor Parker, that we do now

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Speaker 1: have Well, we're in a situation where there's been a

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Speaker 1: change in leadership with the Department of Health, who's at

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Speaker 1: the helm at the moment, Well.

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Speaker 2: The new minister, and we're looking forward to meeting with

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Speaker 2: the new minister and yeah, bringing up a few issues

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Speaker 2: that we need to talk about urgently with him. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: So I imagine every man, these dogs trying to meet

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Speaker 2: with the new minister at the moment. Usually happens when

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Speaker 2: there's a James the government to what has joined the queue.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, and obviously meetings with the new minister and

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Speaker 2: the CEO are important, and yeah, just to work. You know,

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Speaker 2: I developed a common threat of conversation about the significant

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Speaker 2: health problems affecting Territori into the moment.

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Speaker 1: And so who's the CEO at the moment, Well, it's

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Speaker 1: mister Hoskins, who was the head of the ED come

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Speaker 1: from the Department of Digital Development, Chris Hoskins.

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Speaker 2: He was the guy driving Acacia and he's been taken over.

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Speaker 2: We're not quite sure how that is. You know, he's

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Speaker 2: coming from an IT area and we're not quite sure

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Speaker 2: about his grasp of health issues. But we're certainly looking

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Speaker 2: forward to further discussion with him in that regard.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I had wondered that, like with the coming across

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Speaker 1: from from the department in terms of you know, the

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Speaker 1: new system that's in place there at the emergency will

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Speaker 1: at the hospital more generally, what kind of impact that

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Speaker 1: might have and whether it would be a positive thing.

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Speaker 1: How is that a CACIA system going.

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Speaker 2: We understand there's a lot of not very happy people

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Speaker 2: with at the moment, particularly in the ED department, so

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Speaker 2: that's obviously for further discussion with the Minister arouness.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, definitely, doctor Parker. Just on those are those

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Speaker 1: additional beds. Like I said, it sounds like it's a

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Speaker 1: good thing with those extra beds coming online, as you'd

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Speaker 1: also touched on as well with the mental health ward,

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Speaker 1: but it does sound as though there's going to be

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Speaker 1: some concerns attached to that in terms of staffing them

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Speaker 1: and having the funding to make sure that they're staffed.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, correct, you know, and you know, as it

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Speaker 2: putting out, the previous government topped up the health budget

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Speaker 2: with Electra two hundred million dollars last year, severely scolding

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Speaker 2: the poor old XCO and the process. And that's already

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Speaker 2: so already their health budget's blown out by two hundred

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Speaker 2: million dollars. Yeah, and you know, the new the cabinets

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Speaker 2: to make the new beds workable. Plus the additional healll

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Speaker 2: metal health bed, we're probably looking at a setting another

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Speaker 2: one hundred million dollars they're going to find in addition

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Speaker 2: to already have blown out health budget. So it's going

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Speaker 2: to be an interesting process for the Treasurer. Bill maybe

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Speaker 2: look forward to talking with with it, maybe him and

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Speaker 2: the health.

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Speaker 1: Industry about So you haven't met with the health minister

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Speaker 1: yet at this point, No, no.

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Speaker 2: They said, every man these dog usually lines up the

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Speaker 2: MI few up the stuff. So is it. We'll just

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Speaker 2: join the queue and and try and organize the time

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Speaker 2: for us to meet it Sunday.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, well, doctor Robert Parker. I always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having your chat with me

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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Speaker 2: I got good to talk to you, Kady.

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Speaker 1: Thank you