The Liberals are delivering a stronger future by securing local health services in Lyons.

In addition to record hospital funding in Tasmania and over 2,900 new or amended medicine listings on the PBS, the Liberals will invest an additional $146 million towards boosting the rural healthcare workforce.

Liberal Candidate for Lyons Susie Bower said this investment will inject more doctors and allied health professionals into local regional and rural communities. This will provide better local access to healthcare, improve treatment and care for patients.

“Because we’ve delivered a strong economy, we can invest in the critical services that locals rely on,” Ms Bower said.

“This announcement builds on our strong track record of doubling hospital funding, securing the future of Medicare by making Telehealth permanent, over 2,900 new or amended medicine listings on the PBS and saving people $10 per general script.”

As part of this landmark funding pledge, the Federal Liberal Government will deliver:

• More support for GPs to work in country hospitals and treat patients in the community. This will help more doctors provide services such as anaesthetics, obstetrics, mental health and emergency medicine in regional areas.
• $35 million in new funding to attract, support and retain rural health professionals through the successful Innovative Models of Collaborative Care program.
• $15 million to expand the John Flynn Prevocational Doctor Program to more than 1,000 placements in rural Australia per year by 2026. This program has already been delivering rural training positions across Tasmania, and this increased funding will boost training for the next generation of junior doctors through placements in rural and regional general practice.
• $9 million for rural GPs to undertake advanced skills training in areas including obstetrics, palliative care, paediatrics and mental health.
• $87 million to incentivise highly trained healthcare professionals to work in rural and remote Australia.

In addition, local areas that have been identified as a priority for recruiting more doctors will have more time to recruit them through an extension of their priority status for an additional year.

“This will provide medical practices in these areas more time to recruit more doctors to address workforce shortages,” Ms Bower said.

The Liberals are also encouraging more young doctors to work rurally by eliminating the HELP debt for eligible doctors and nurse practitioners who work in rural towns and remote and very remote communities for specified periods.

These investments build on the $550 million that the Liberals invested through the Stronger Rural Health Strategy announced in the 2018-19 Budget, and the approximately $300 million of additional investments announced in the recent 2022-23 Budget.

In contrast, when Labor were last in office they stopped listing essential medicines on the PBS and cut funding for the private health insurance rebate. Australians can’t trust Labor with health care.