with Susan Templeman MP

How many people know what it ’ s like to need urgent medical care late at night or over the weekend , when waiting for your local GP just isn ’ t an option , and you know you ’ re in for a long wait at Emergency if you head to hospital ?

I ’ ve listened to Hawkesbury families who ’ ve told me it ’ s much harder and more expensive to get that urgent care since the After-Hours GP Clinic at Hawkesbury Hospital closed , under the Liberal ’ s watch .

A Medicare Urgent Care Clinic could solve some of these problems as a place that provides medical care in urgent , but not life-threatening , situations . They ’ re open for extended hours , including weekends . You don ’ t need an appointment . The services , including x-rays or scans and blood tests , are fully bulk billed , with no out of pocket costs .

The other positive is that they take pressure off emergency departments and the hard-working staff we have there .

I ’ ve seen the benefits of the Penrith Urgent Care Clinic .

People have told me that that it ’ s been a quick and efficient visit , that it saved them hours waiting in emergency to check out a possible fracture , and that having everything covered my Medicare was most welcome . That ’ s why I ’ m calling on the Federal Government to open a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic here , in the Hawkesbury .

You can help me show it ’ s needed by signing my petition and sharing with me your example of how it could help you and your family . An Urgent Care Clinic would build on the improvements we ’ ve made to making Medicare stronger in the Hawkesbury .

We have the Medicare Mental Health

Service in Richmond providing free mental health care . We have Headspace , providing targeted support and prevention services for young people ’ s mental wellbeing . And we have the Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain clinic in Rouse Hill , the first in the west to give women access a dedicated care and treatment options .

And we ’ ve turned around the falling levels of bulkbilling by tripling the bulkbilling incentive for GPs .

In Macquarie , 82.8 % of all GP visits are bulk-billed since our additional investment in Medicare took effect , which means there have been more than 30,000 additional bulk-billed visits to the doctor in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury .

And since the Albanese Government was elected , 32 new GPs have started billing Medicare locally .

On top of that , Macquarie residents have saved more than $ 6.2 million on

695,000 scripts because we ’ ve made medicines cheaper by cutting their cost , lowering the Safety Net threshold and introducing 60-day prescriptions .

These are significant steps forward in less than three years , and I look forward to Labor continuing to work hard to strengthen Medicare .

Help me keep fighting for improvements to Medicare in the Hawkesbury by supporting an Urgent Care Clinic by signing the petition at - https :// susantempleman . com . au / hawkesburyurgent-care-clinic / or scan the QR code .

with Robyn Preston MP

It is extremely disappointing that as you read this article , the Minns Labor Government has been unable to reach an agreement with NSW psychiatrists over a pay and work conditions dispute which has been dragging on for sixteen months . Psychiatrists in NSW are currently paid thirty percent less than their counterparts in Victoria and Queensland . NSW psychiatrists are seeking a twenty-five percent pay rise .

The dispute was heard by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission on Tuesday , 21 st January 2025 and an urgent five-day arbitration hearing is set to

take place in mid-March . More than two hundred psychiatrists submitted their resignation with fifty-five positions now vacant and one hundred and thirty more guaranteed to create vacancies in the coming days .

The NSW Labor Government will seek to fill these positions with ‘ locums ’ ( casual contractors ) at triple the daily rate per psychiatrist . To add insult to injury , the Minns Labor Government is shifting the psychiatrist ’ s role to the nurses and doctors who are already over worked . This is a blatant disrespect to the psychiatrists ’ profession and the role they have in the assessment and care of patients seeking mental health support .

The mental health care system is collapsing , and our doctors and nurses are expected to step up and work outside their scope of experience .

Psychiatrists undertake twelve years of training to develop specialised skills and until an agreement can be reached , mental health care patients will not receive the urgent care they deserve . This is an unacceptable risk to our healthcare workers and patients through the inadequate treatment of behaviourally disturbed patients .

How can members of the community expect to receive the best medical care available , if this continues ?

Since March 2023 , NSW has endured

strikes and protests in the transport and health sectors and the construction industry .

In the previous term of government , the Liberals and Nationals had a clear wages policy that provided certainty for the public sector . The election of Labor in 2023 has opened the door to industrial chaos in relation to work conditions and pay , with expectations being raised and a Labor Government that is playing favourites with different sectors , without budgeting to cover these pay increases . The taxpayer will bear the brunt of Labor ’ s priorities which leaves nothing to spend on infrastructure and investment in your future .