AMA VICDOC_Spring 2026_09.09.2026 - Flipbook - Page 26
GENERAL PRACTICE AND PRIVATE SPECIALIST
CARE REMAIN CENTRAL. VICTORIA CANNOT REPAIR
MEDICARE, BUT IT CAN DECIDE WHETHER ITS OWN
TAXES, REFERRAL ARRANGEMENTS, INFORMATION
SYSTEMS AND MODELS OF CARE SUPPORT MEDICAL
PRACTICE OR SIMPLY TRANSFER FURTHER COST
AND WORK ONTO IT.
A common saying in
Workforce issues have
health policy is that
become less abstract.
everything is connected.
It’s not an especially original observation,
but it’s true. More hospital beds achieve little
without the doctors, nurses and other staff
to open them. When people cannot see a
GP or specialist, some end up in emergency
departments. When patients cannot access
rehabilitation, aged care or community
services, they remain in hospital longer.
The headings are useful for organising a
document. The challenges themselves are
less obliging.
Some of those themes have sharpened in
recent months. Regional healthcare has
moved into a more public phase following
26
Victorian public hospital doctors
commenced their first protected industrial
action in 20 years after almost 12 months
of bargaining without an offer. The
enterprise agreement is formally separate
from the election, but the underlying
questions are not: whether doctors have the
pay and conditions they need to work safely
and sustainably, and whether Victoria can
attract and retain the workforce its health
system requires.
Within the space of a week, we met Minister
Stitt twice, first to discuss the public
hospital agreement and then mental health
reform. On mental health, our focus has
increasingly been on the pointy end of
reports of extreme emergency department
the system. There has been considerable
access block. This has given greater
reform activity since the Royal Commission,
urgency to our regional advocacy and will
but too little attention to people with severe
be reflected in the election statement.
and acute mental illness.
