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Health and wellbeing are central to the lives of Australian women. This year the Howard Government builds on its considerable record in health. The Government is committed to the provision of universally affordable health services, preventative care and promotion of healthy lifestyles. Budget initiatives focus on cervical screening, after hours emergency care and health services for rural and remote women. These build on a wide variety of measures the Government has implemented over past years that will help to improve the health and well being of women. These include:
In the 2001-02 Budget the Government will provide $120.4 million over 4 years to improve the quality of care provided through general practice to Australians with a mental illness. This measure will encourage better identification, care and review for mental health patients by general practitioners. It will also enable general practitioners to provide best practice mental health care through education and training, improved access to allied health professional support and psychiatric consultancy.
Alcohol abuse is a major cause of death and hospitalisation in Australia and makes a significant contribution to the total burden of disease. Alcohol misuse can not only shorten people's lives through disease, but is also a significant factor in road trauma, falls, drowning, suicide, other injuries and mental illness. The financial burden of misuse of alcohol to the community has been estimated at $4.5 billion a year, including lower productivity due to lost work days, road accident costs, legal and court costs as well as health care costs. [Collins DJ and Lapsley HM (1996) The social costs of drug abuse in Australia in 1988 and 1992 AGPS]
To help alleviate this burden, the Government is funding the establishment of an independent Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation in order to prevent alcohol and other licit substance abuse. The aim of the Foundation is to prevent abuse of alcohol and other licit substances, particularly among vulnerable population groups. This measure will provide $115 million to the Foundation.
The Foundation will:
The focus of this initiative is on the provision of effective treatment and rehabilitation services and also of health promotion programmes which have been shown to make a significant contribution to the reduction of alcohol misuse.
In the 2001-02 Budget the Government will provide incentives totalling $71.9 million over four years to general practitioners to increase the rates of participation in the National Cervical Screening Programme. This initiative will introduce a financial incentive that will be paid directly to the general practitioner whenever the doctor screens a `high risk' patient. There will also be a population based incentive paid through the Practice Incentives Programme to general practices which meet certain targets for the proportion of women attending their practice who participate in cervical screening.
This initiative will be of particular benefit to older women in rural and remote areas, and from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, who participate in the cervical screening programme at lower rates, and who consequently have higher morbidity and mortality from cervical cancer.
Research data indicates that women are high users of after hours emergency care services. This 2001-02 Budget measure has four components worth $43.4 million over four years. Funding will be made available to:
The Federal Government is committed to improving access to health and aged care services for Australians living in regional, rural and remote locations. Since 1996, it has introduced a broad range of initiatives to ensure the best health care is available to everyone no matter where they live, both through its own programs and the substantial support it provides to the States and Territories. Successive Budget packages have built on these initiatives culminating in the 2000-01 Budget's Regional Health Strategy: More Doctors, Better Services - an extensive and integrated package worth $562.1 million over four years.
This Budget will provide $104.3 million over four years to improve access to medical services for patients in rural areas and other areas of doctor shortage, by providing support for general practices to employ practice nurses. These arrangements will allow general practitioners in these practices to focus on diagnosis and clinical care, while practice nurses assist in the management of chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma, conduct health assessments, and provide clinical support.
The initiative will be targeted to those areas where patient access to medical services is limited due to an undersupply of general practitioners, as in rural and remote Australia, and in provincial and outer metropolitan areas where there are doctor shortages. Funds will be provided through the Practice Incentives Programme.
Under this measure $5.2 million over four years is for re-entry training programs for rural nurses. This will be provided via a scholarship programme of approximately 400 scholarships per annum, and provision of funding to support professional development of nurses.
In the 2001-02 Budget the Government will provide $13 million over four years to improve the access to undergraduate nursing education for rural and regional students.
Under this initiative $10.9 million over four years will provide greater access to undergraduate nursing degrees for students who are from rural and regional Australia. One hundred rural nursing scholarships of $10,000 per annum will be available for rural students who nominate to study the majority or entirety of their degree at a rural campus. A further ten scholarships will be available for Indigenous Australian nursing students or Aboriginal health workers who want to upgrade their qualifications.
The scholarships will ensure that rural students have access to undergraduate nursing education in rural areas by removing some of the financial barriers associated with higher education.
In addition, $2.1 million over four years will be provided for support measures associated with the scholarship with a particular emphasis on indigenous nursing students. Funding will be provided to facilitate greater access to mentor/preceptor programs and financial assistance will be made available for scholarship holders in exceptional circumstances where students suffer financial hardship. Funding will also be provided for culturally appropriate training for rural nurses to assist them better deal with Indigenous Australian clients.