It's time for the Federal Labor Government to lock in new Urgent Care Clinics before a Federal election is called, and to take the politics out of primary health care.
Minister for Health, Jacquie Petrusma, said the Labor Candidates for Lyons and Braddon are shamelessly politicising new Urgent Care Clinics in Burnie and Sorell with their sham petitions calling on their own party to announce one.
"This is an insult to Tasmanians, and a shameless politicisation of primary health care in our State," Minister Petrusma said.
"We've been putting the case for over a year for Federal Labor to fund additional UCCs in Tasmania's regions, including in Burnie and Sorell - why didn't Ms White and Senator Urquhart join our calls then, rather than waiting until the 11th hour before an election?
"The reality is, you don't start a petition immediately before an election campaign to get everyone's hopes up unless you know the end result.
"The Albanese Government should stop wasting everyone's time and just announce it now, so we can get on with delivering it.
"The Federal Government must also stop their consistent pattern of cost-shifting to the states, and provide real solutions to ensure better access to primary care.
"Every Tasmanian deserves access to affordable GP services no matter where they live and the only way to increase bulk billing and make GP appointments more affordable in Tasmania, is for the Federal Labor Government to increase Medicare rebates.
"Unaffordable GP appointments means more people turning up to our emergency departments with non-life threatening conditions, which increases wait times for all patients and increases demand on our amazing healthcare workers.
"Through our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania's Future, our Government is building an even better health system."
