Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simeon Brown: Health Minister on improvements to urgent care are set to roll out over the next four years

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Simeon Brown: Health Minister on improvements to urgent care are set to roll out over the next four years · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Prebuds an announcement for US one hundred and sixty four
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: million dollars over four years for five new twenty four
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to seven urgent healthcare clinics. That's forty one million dollars
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: a year. Counties Monaco, fung Rda, Palmston, North Totong and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Duneed and Health Minister Sime and Brown with me this
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: morning minutes A good morning.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Good morning Ryan.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: So will these areas get a new clinic?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: This will be about ensuring those communities have twenty four
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: to seven access to urgent and after ours care and
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: healthy animill grow through a procurement process. Most likely they'll
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: work with existing providers who may already be providing services,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: say till eight o'clock or nine o'clock at night, and
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: look to extend those hours overnight to ensure that the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: access to that service is there. It's for young parents
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: needing to have their children seen who come down sick.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: It's about reducing pressure on emergency departments because we know
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: that around a third of patients who are turn up
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: at emergency departments are Triage four or five, which are
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: lower acuity. Many of those can be seen in urgent
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: and after ours care. Clinics, so reducing pressure on hospitals,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: providing access and supporting particularly those young families.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: So this is private clinics. We will pay to go
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: after hours if there was enough of a demand, wouldn't
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: maybe open now already.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Look, this is about providing access and ensuring that access
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: is there and ensuring that people can receive that care.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So when you pay them to stay open, basically even
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: if they're making a loss, you'll cover it, that's right.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: It'll be about making sure that there is access to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: these services. There will also be support for people who
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: do need that support to ensure they can. You know,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: for lower income families, community services can't. But the cost
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of the system is substantially cheaper if someone is seen
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: in primary care than if they turn up to an
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: emergency department. The cost difference to somewhere between like a
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars eight hundreds of thousand dollars if someone turns
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: up to an emergency department, whereas it's around one hundred
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: and fifty to two hundred dollars per person if they
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: turn up to an after ours care clinics. Cost of
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the systems a lot longer, it's closer to home it's
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: more convenient. That's what we're trying to do. Well.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: The friend of mine's a doctor. He works in an
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: emergency department. He said, the problem is that you've got
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: people who come to the emergency department go there because
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: they know eventually they will be seen and they don't
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: have to pay anything. He said, you give in the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: emergency department waiting room. You give people a voucher that says, hey,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: go to this after ours clinic. They can see you
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and you and you won't have to pay because you
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: were giving you this voucher. They don't move because they
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: are already in a queue. How do you know you
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: can only do so much well.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: One of the challenges though, in many communities across the country,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: the access to those services is quite limited in terms
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: of the hours. So for example, Middlemoor Hospital emergency department
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: is one of our busiest emergency departments. There is no
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: after Ours twenty four to seven clinic in Counties Manicau.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So that's what we're doing here, making sure there isn't
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: after ours clinic in Counties Mancau. So there is an
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: ability for those patients to be seen elsewhere in the community.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: But private one open at night. Yeah, that's right.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: So that's what this is all about, making sure there's
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: more access and supporting reducing pressure in the regency.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Department had one very very quick question. Have you had
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: anyone or any unions or anyone approach you about this
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: new pay parody stuff? You know, the potential for a
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: deal being lodged or a case being lodged.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Look, though the legislation is very clear individuals unions are
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: able to lodge claims. There's a legislated process around that
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and if parties can't agree, they can go to the
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Employment Relations Authority.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks your time, minister, appreciate it. Simming Brown, the Health
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Minister with us this morning.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:41
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• 3:45
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