HOST: Earlier this morning I spoke to the Prime Minister, and asked him what those places will mean for regional Queensland.
PM: Well altogether what we are doing through our national health and hospitals network is funding an extra 6000 doctors over the coming decade. That'll mean 5,500 new or training general practitioners, 680 new medical specialists, as well as about 5,500 junior doctor places as they train within our hospitals.
The second point is this: for regional Australia- and that means places like Far North Queensland, we are for the first time tackling the central problem of not enough doctors nationwide, and a large number of these GP training places and specialist training places will be going to regional areas. That's our best way of tackling the doctor shortage. It's simply been left too long with no concrete action.
HOST: So those training places - assigned to regional hospitals?
PM: For the medical specialists - there are 680 of those- the concentration there is in rural and regional areas. The concentration there is in a whole range of other areas beyond capital cities. On top of that, we of course, will continue to train medical specialists within the major teaching hospitals within capital cities. But this 680 is dedicated in particular to deal with the needs of regional and rural Australia. The second thing though, is on the GPs - and many people, many people right around the country can't get proper access to a GP.
These GP training places will be also available to regional and rural areas, because we want local doctors as they come out of medical school to be trained as GPs in situation, on the ground, in wonderful cities like Cairns and Far North Queensland, then become established in the local community, and stay there.
HOST: How are you going to attract people, though, to do that? It's one thing to allocate the training places, but is there a way to tie these training places to smaller, regional centres, particularly the very small places?
PM: Well one of the initiatives which the Government has taken already is to provide a much greater range of incentives for doctors to go to and to stay in rural and regional centres. In fact, I think we've increased the number of doctors who are eligible for those support payments up to about 2,500 across the country now, and expanded the number of areas which will be included in that as well. That's one thing.
But you know, underneath it all, what the problem is - not enough overall supply of GPs in the first place. And if we increase the supply of GPs nationwide, we will make a huge step forward to dealing with the problem. Right now the projection is that if we don't take action, just to maintain things as they are, we'll need an extra 3000 GPs in the decade ahead. However, we need to improve where we are at the moment. That's why we're aiming to deliver 5,500 new GP training places for that period, because we need to expand in particular what's available in rural and regional Australia.
HOST: Rural GPs say this isn't going to be enough, and that's what required to get GPs to the bush is a lot more money. Is that going to be available?
PM: Well, can I just go for example to the general practice rural incentives program, which the Government has introduced. And that is designed specifically to assist with location grants over a period of time. For example, $4000 in the first six months, $6000 in the first full year, $8000 in the second year, $13000 three to four years on, $18000 five years plus. Put that together, it starts to add up to a sizeable amount of money.
We are always open to further ideas about how we provide incentives in rural and regional areas. This is a program which we are proud of, which we believe will help in areas which currently have an undersupply of doctors. But I keep going back to my original point. You can provide as many incentives as you like- unless you have an overall adequate supply of GPs coming through the system, it simply won't work. And what we've done with this 5,500 additional training places for General Practitioners is extend that out much more extensively into rural and regional Australia.
We can't simply accept business as usual with the health and hospital system. Something has to change. We've put forward a plan for change, a new national health and hospital network, funded nationally, run locally, the first time the Australian Government becoming the dominant funder of the Australian public hospital system. But we need more doctors as well.
HOST: Mr Rudd, you've said you'll use private hospitals and general practices to help train some of these medicos. How will that work?
PM: Well, we'll simply enter into the appropriate arrangements on the ground. You know, right across rural and regional Australia, you have different mixes of private and public services. But we will simply tailor those to the circumstances on the ground. We think that's the right and the practical way to go. We are strong supporters of the public health system, the public hospital system. But where we need to engage and create a partnership with private hospitals, we'll do so as well.
HOST: Mr Rudd, I noticed one of the doctors when you were visiting Queanbeyan Hospital yesterday mentioned that you need to take a look at the Cuban health system. Have you had an opportunity to find out what's so good about the health system in Cuba?
PM: Yeah I sort of let that one go through to the keeper. I just mentioned in passing that I think there's a few problems with things like political freedom in places like Cuba. But it's a rich and diverse country we have in Australia. We're always open to ideas from everybody, but I think we might just leave that Cuban model to one side.
What we're concerned about is just not accepting the continuation of things as they are in the health and hospital system for Australia. That's why we've put together this bold new plan, funded nationally, run locally, and for the first time the Australian Government becoming the dominant funder of the public hospital system of Australia.
HOST: Can I just take up on that funded nationally, run locally point? Because one of the big problems in Queensland is a shortage of doctors and nurses, and employing doctors and nurses is one of the areas that you're still leaving up to the state Governments. So, surely that's not going to make any difference to the quality of healthcare?
PM: I think there are many parts to this. The first and fundamental one is how do you get rid of the game of cost-shift, blame-shift and waste and overlap and duplication between the two levels of government. Our response to that is as follows. For the first time the Australian Government becoming the dominant funder of the public hospital system. Its recurrent needs, its capital needs, its equipment needs, its teaching and training needs. That hasn't been the case ever in Australia's history.
And secondly, to become the exclusive funder of what's called the primary healthcare system, health services delivered outside of hospitals. If you do that, then, in terms of the mindless game which occurs and has occurred over many years between the two levels of government about who's responsible for what, frankly, we take the underpinnings away from that.
Secondly, you've still got to have, however, personnel to run the system. That means more doctors, more GPs, more specialists, more nurses, and what we have made clear in our announcement today is that we're not simply restructuring, refunding the national health and hospitals network- we're actually investing new money in the provision of more than 6000 new doctors and GPs and specialists over the decade ahead. That's what makes the difference. And we, the Australian Government, are responsible for ensuring that we've got a proper supply of GPs nationwide.
HOST: Mr Rudd, The Australian newspaper is reporting that your approval rating is at its lowest since 2006. Are you concerned by that in an election year?
PM: You know something- the key things that Australian working families expect of me is to keep my sleeves rolled up and delivering on the basics. And that means health and hospitals. And that means making sure we get on with the business of reforming the system and delivering better health, better hospitals. More hospital beds, more doctors, more GPs, more nurses, more specialists.
On the question of the upcoming election, as I've said for a long, long time, when an election is held it's going to be very tightly-fought. It'll be a hard-fought election. And I expect that. But I will simply continue in the business of ensuring that we are keeping the economy strong, protecting jobs, protecting the jobs of working families in North Queensland. But you know something, it'll be a tough fight, and that's what I fully expect come election time.
HOST: Kevin Rudd, thank you.
PM: Thanks for having me on the program.