PM: First of all, it's great to be back in Lismore. I was talking to Janelle Saffin, our local Member, and I think it's my fourth return to Lismore since becoming Prime Minister of Australia, if not to Lismore itself, then certainly to the electorate. And good also to have Justine Elliot, our Minister for Aged care. In the last period of time, we've been debating the future of health and hospitals reform for Australia. And our proposal is for a National Health and Hospital Network which is funded nationally, and run locally. And that's this plan that we released six weeks ago at the National Press Club in Canberra.
And since then, we have been in the middle of a big national debate about the future of health and hospitals. Our plan would be the single biggest change to the health and hospital system in Australia since the introduction of Medicare. This is therefore a once in a generation opportunity to fundamentally reform the future of our health and hospital system. And I believe working families, pensioners, carers, right across Australia, don't want us to actually pass up that chance for change.
The Commonwealth has put forward what we regard as a responsible, carefully costed, carefully crafted plan for the future. This is a product of 18 months work by a health reform commission, the product of six months or more of consultations with more than 100 hospitals right across the country, including my previous visit, as part of a local hospital consultation here in Lismore about six months or so ago.
Since then, and released in the last 24 hours, we have also indicated the additional investments we propose for the health and hospital system in the here and now, and into the future as well. New investments in terms of our medical workforce. New investments in terms of what we'll do in our hospitals, in emergency departments, in elective surgery. New investments in aged care. New investments also in the way in which we would support sufferers of diabetes, and the sufferers of cancer through integrated cancer centres across the country, particularly in regional and rural areas.
Altogether, our blueprint for reform, our investments for the future, representing a $3 billion growth in Australian Government funding for the health and hospital system starting now. That's what we want to get on and do. Now, in the six days remaining between now and the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra, there's going to be a lot of claim and counter-claim. Well, that's what the political debate is all about. But I would ask all the Premiers to rise to the occasion and to grasp this opportunity to forge a national agreement, in the national interest.
I would appeal to all Premiers and Chief Ministers to now act in the national interest, and in the interests of working families. I would appeal to all Premiers and Chief Ministers to put aside local differences and support this once in a generation opportunity to deliver better health and hospital services for all working families, pensioners and carers. And I'd appeal to the Premiers and Chief Ministers to come out and confirm that they want to reach an agreement when the COAG meets in Canberra next Monday. That they want to take action on the future of health and hospital reform, to deliver better hospital and health services for all Australians.
My appeal to them is to put aside local differences, to act in the national interest, to act in the interests of working families, pensioners and carers, who are crying out for reform to our system, now. Now we will of course, in the days remaining, debate all the details, and I'm sure those discussions are going to continue. And I will continue to meet with Premiers. I was with Premier Bligh of Queensland yesterday. And I'll be of course catching up with the Premier of New South Wales again during the course of this week. And I look forward to catching up with other Premiers as well- on the phone, in the flesh, all about making all the efforts necessary to bring about this important historical agreement.
This will be a very tough negotiation. It is a really tough negotiation. When you're talking about such a fundamental long-term reform for the health and hospital system, then there's always going to be a lot of resistance, a lot of opposition, and a lot of pressure. But I would appeal to everybody to take this once in a generation opportunity to act in the national interest and deliver better health and hospital services for families, and all Australians.
Which brings me of course to what we're doing here, in Lismore. This is a good day for the people of this area, the people of this wider region. I mentioned before the impact of diabetes. It's a major disease, which affects so many Australians. And the funding that we have already announced for enhanced patient care for diabetes sufferers right across Australia. 1.1 million of them right now, rising to 2.2 million over the decade ahead. That's going to be 10% of our population. Another major disease, of course, is cancer. And I've just been speaking to some of the patients in the chemotherapy ward here at Lismore Hospital about the practical problems which patients experience in regional areas getting proper treatment.
I've spoken to a bloke before who said it's hard enough dealing with this disease, rather than having also to deal with travelling hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kilometres, and sometimes more than that again, to get basic cancer treatment. You know, when I saw recently the figures which said that if you are diagnosed with cancer in a rural or regional part of Australia that with some of those cancers you are three times more likely to die within the first five years of diagnosis if you live in a rural area, as opposed to an urban area, I don't think that's right. I don't think that is the way in which Australians want their health system to be organised.
And we also look at the number of people diagnosed with cancer every year. Some 100,000 Australians, some 32,000 residents of this state of New South Wales. So what we, the Australian Government are doing is rolling out a series of integrated cancer care centres across the country- regional centres, so that people living in the regions who are afflicted with this disease do not have to travel as far to get basic cancer treatment. And that's why I'm announcing today that the Government will invest $9.1 million to enhance cancer services at the Lismore Base Hospital, as part of the North Coast Cancer Institute regional cancer service.
What this will do is three things. It will provide $6.5 million to commission a second linear accelerator, a second linear accelerator. Also, we are providing funding for a PET scanner at Lismore Base Hospital, and we're also providing funding of $2.6 million to be invested in a 20 unit cancer patient and carer accommodation facility which will be called Our House. We actually believe that these are important investments for this community.
If you have access to a PET scanner, as I was saying to the experts just before, frankly, it enhances your early diagnosis, the most accurate diagnosis of where a cancer has reached in a given patient's body. And that provides you with the information necessary to quickly decide what sort of treatment you need, whether it's a form of chemotherapy, whether it's a form of radiotherapy, whether in fact you need other forms of surgical intervention, or other forms of treatment. So therefore, having a PET scanner here, that's going to be pretty important. Having a second linear accelerator here will enhance the ability to provide radiation oncology services enormously across this region.
I was speaking to the experts next door, who told me with the commissioning of number one linear accelerator, we're going to be able to provide some 420 treatments in a given year. Once you've got a second linear accelerator, you multiply that by two, that's 840 such treatments in a given year. This is the practical stuff which makes a difference to working families, pensioners and carers right across this region. So I conclude where I began. These are really important investments for something as basic as the health and hospital needs of the people of this region. These are really important investments for cancer sufferers across Australia, because we are seeking to do this in major regional centres across the country.
And I'd thank Janelle very much for her strong, strong local advocacy and support of the interests of Lismore Base Hospital to make sure that these investments came here to the people of this region. Happy to take your questions, folks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what would your takeover of the public hospital system mean for an area like Lismore? A number of the local public would consider some of the issues (inaudible) a basket case. How will it improve things, and will that be making you take more responsibility for some of the issues at Lismore Hospital?
PM: Well let me go to a very basic fact, which is how do you fund the health and hospital system for the future. Here at Lismore Base Hospital you are servicing a vast population of people here, in this wider region. One of the critical challenges here of course is making sure you've got a sufficient funding base for this to work in the future. What we're going to do is introduce a system called activity-based funding, which means that for the services that you provide at a hospital, that you will in fact be funded for those services, not simply being given a block allocation from state office. That is a big change. That is a really big change.
The second point is this, it goes to the structure- we, the Australian Government, are going to have, for the first time, be the dominant funders of the Australian public hospital system. That is, at present, we fund one third of the running costs of hospitals like this. In the future, we'll be the dominant funders of its running costs, its capital costs, its equipment costs, its teaching costs, and its training costs. That is a huge change for the future. And finally, we will provide funding direct to local hospital networks.
That is a big change as well, because we want local governing councils made up of your local clinical leaders, your nurse leaders, your allied health professionals and other health and management and finance experts to make decisions locally about the use of those dollars. So you ask what will change? One, for the first time, we become the dominant funders of the system, and that's means for this hospital. And two, it also means that our payments will be made direct to local governing councils of a local hospital network so that they have more autonomy to make the decisions in response to local needs.
JOURNALIST: This hospital's traditionally been underfunded. Can you guarantee, under the new system, that it would get the funding that it needs?
PM: Well, what I can say is that- we are- this is one of 764 public hospitals across Australia. And my job in bringing about a national reform through a National Health and Hospitals Network is to make sure that we have a funding model which provides real funding increases for hospitals like Lismore Base Hospital which are delivering more services. That's what activity-based funding is all about. And that's quite separate to the additional investments which are outlined in this document that I released in the last 24 hours. For example, I've just been speaking with young doctors here.
One of the problems in this area is do you have enough GPs, do you have enough local specialists, do you have enough specialists nurses, do you have enough allied health professionals. In each of those areas, I've announced further investments on behalf of the Australian Government for more GP training places, more specialist training places outside of metropolitan areas, as well as of course the announcements already made by the Minister in relation to nursing.
And also, the announcements that we've made in the last week, the further investments for training places for allied health professionals, with a particular emphasis on rural and regional Australia. So you ask what changes, and whether funding will actually flow? Not only is there a funding formula for the future which guarantees that money would come to the services actually delivered, but on top of that, we've also made further investments, $3 billion worth of investments, to deal with such critical questions such as local health workforce needs.
JOURNALIST: But will it be hard for regional hospitals to compete with metropolitan hospitals if they're all sort of going to the one source?
PM: Well, one of the big challenges there on workforce is this- right now, let's just go to GPs. In order to maintain the current ratio of provision between GPs and the community over the decade ahead, we're going to need to add an additional 3000 GPs, GP training places, to the country. Because that's how many are going to exit the system through ageing, retirement and the rest. That is why the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon and I, announced recently that we'll be investing in 5,500 new GP training places nationwide, because we've got to improve the ratio of provision. Once you have done that, you have more GPs, frankly, who will be in a position to take up offers of work in regional areas as well. Right now, you have a supply and demand problem nationwide. We intend to deal with that through the measures we've outlined. And for specialists, as well.
JOURNALIST: There's also an infrastructure issue here. The next setup for the cancer unit bringing people into Lismore is-
PM: How about- it's good to have the cancer unit? Isn't it?
JOURNALIST: They're still very happy, I'm told.
PM: Is it good to have the second linear accelerator? How about the PET scanner?
JOURNALIST: I understand it's the first one in regional New South Wales.
PM: Well I think there's one in Newcastle, I'm advised, and-
SAFFIN: Regional.
PM: I'm just saying, frankly, this is a huge growth region. And let's just be realistic about it. And that's why, until recently, we haven't had a PET scanner at a major centre like Townsville in North Queensland. That's just wrong. Why are we in a situation in 2010 where this is the case? So look, block by block, change by change, region by region, we intend to make a difference. Half a billion dollars plus being invested in integrated cancer care centres in regional Australia, where frankly, people right now get a raw deal on the delivery of cancer services. Sorry, you were about to ask another question?
JOURNALIST: The next step to Lismore Base Hospital-
PM: After the three things I've just announced-
JOURNALIST: The stage three upgrade, which is getting increasingly urgent. The hospital's very old. We had a situation a little while ago where a patient dialled 000 just to get some attention because the nurse call system had failed. The cost of the stage three upgrade is around $100 million, I think, at last report. Is there any sort of prospect of the Federal Government stepping in on this?
PM: Well, can I say- to repeat what I said before- the Australian Government, if the Premiers and Chief Ministers agree to this plan, become the dominant funders of the Australian public hospital system for the first time. Secondly, that includes the capital needs of the system. That means new buildings. It means new equipment. That is new. In the past, guess how much the Australian Government provided for capital buildings and equipment in hospitals such as this- zero, absolutely zero. And occasionally, the Australian Government would step in and say actually we need this, that and the other to be done in a particular region. We actually need to put this on a systematic basis, that's what this is all about. So you asked specifically about the future expansion of this hospital? We would become 60% funders of the future growth of the system. Of course, that has to be worked out with individual service delivery plans between local hospital networks and state health systems, I understand that. But we, for the first time, become the dominant funders of the system. That is the core change here. And it affects the future of every hospital and every health service in the country.
JOURNALIST: There's another PET scanner in Queensland I believe which has been announced which is supposed to come online in 2014. When will this one come online, when will the accelerators be here?
PM: When the- I was asked this question recently, I think, in Townsville. And I'd much rather defer to the local experts who are, frankly, going to work on a very detailed installation plan, proving up plan, bringing the staff online plan, and I'm sure they, together with Janelle, will give you a detailed statement in the period ahead about when each of these elements come online. I don't wish to give a day in a month, because the experts here will frankly have a better idea on how that's going to be done in the period ahead. PET scanners take a while to get going. The advice I had in North Queensland was that they'd take probably about eighteen months from go to woe. But I'll leave it to the experts here and Janelle to make a subsequent statement about when all these come online.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just before we leave you, you've got a pilot scheme which has been operational in the Hunter region called access health- just questions, when is that looking like being rolled out further? Is there potentially going to be any more funding for that? Is it half way between your local GP and hospitals? How is that going?
PM: Well, part of the reform outlined in this document is not just the reform to the hospital system, it's the reform also that we propose to the two other major arms of the health and hospital system. One is primary care, the other is aged care, and the middle, if you like, you've got the acute hospital system. Your question goes to the future of primary care, that is what happens in terms of non-hospital care, community care, community health centres, GP-related services and allied health professionals.
What we want for the future is for better health and better hospitals to be served by enhanced primary care services and enhanced hospitals services and enhanced aged care services. On primary care, what we are looking at particularly is how do we build up local primary healthcare networks in the same sorts of geographical communities of interest as the local hospital networks.
We want to make sure that our GPs and related services are out there providing as much as they can, including with more flexible hours into the future, to take some of the burden away, frankly, from acute hospitals. So many people would present in accident and emergency, I don't know the circumstances in the Hunter, because they can't have access to out of hours GP care.
So, we are trailing a number of things around the country at the moment. 36 GP super clinics being built around the country at the moment. We have a range of other trial programs underway at the moment. But I'd like to make it very clear today that enhanced primary healthcare, better access to primary healthcare outside of hospitals, is one of the three key planks of long-term reform for the health and hospital system. And having said that, I think we'd better zip.
But let me just say one thing about the Barrier Reef, and the good work that's been done by the salvage team up there, dealing with that Chinese vessel. I'm advised that last night at 7:45pm that the first attempt to refloat the Chinese vessel was successful. Thankfully, I'm advised that no leaking oil was found, and the ship was towed overnight to sheltered waters off Barren Island. I've been up there recently, and flew over this vessel. And I've spoken with the salvage operators, and the State and Federal Government officials who've been located in Gladstone coordinating this operation.
This is- has been a very difficult task. And could I just say on behalf of the Government how much we appreciate the professional expertise of the team of officials operating out of Gladstone and elsewhere who have successfully taken this vessel from the Great Barrier Reef to this temporary place where it's moored. On top of that, could I say again, echoing the views I think of all Australians, that it is still an absolute outrage that this vessel could've landed on the Great Barrier Reef twelve kilometres off course. We will leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding out how that happened. We will leave no stone unturned through the investigatory process, which is now in the hands of the Transport Safety Bureau.
On top of that, as I said earlier, if we need changes to the regime which protects the Great Barrier Reef, either extension of the pilotage regime or the extension of the vessel tracking system on the southern parts of the reef, then we will embrace those changes in the future if that's the nature of the recommendations we receive from the investigation. The Great Barrier Reef is a great asset for all Australians. Let's keep it that way. But I congratulate the team who have done all this work on the ground.
Thanks very much folks, gotta run.