GP Access co-founder Dr Annette Carruthers has welcomed Labor's election pledge to fully fund a service she says is taking the strain off the Hunter's hospitals as they deal with record numbers of COVID patients.
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Hunter New England Health said on Monday that 65 COVID patients were receiving treatment in the district's hospitals, more than twice the peak load of the delta outbreak in October.
"It's been an absolute travesty that just when the public has needed us most over this Christmas pandemic period the services have been cut," Dr Carruthers said while standing beside Labor leader Anthony Albanese outside the Toronto GP Access After Hours clinic on Monday.
The Hunter-based service closed its Mater hospital clinic on Christmas eve and has cut hours at other centres due to current state and federal funding not meeting operating costs.
Labor has seized on the changes as an election issue in the four Hunter electorates up for grabs in the coming election.
Mr Albanese, confirming a commitment he made on Sunday, said a Labor government would ensure GP Access had enough funds to restore its previous services.
"This is the most wonderful news, that we have been listened to and now have a potential for the service to be re-instituted in its former strength," Dr Carruthers said.
A spokesperson for Health Minister Greg Hunt said the federal government had maintained funding to the non-profit Primary Health Network to support after-hours care, including "additional funding" for Hunter Primary Care's GP Access clinics.
"The PHN has provided Hunter Primary Care $4.3 million per year since 2017, plus a one-off top-up amount of $1,598,400 in the last financial year to make up for the withdrawal of funding by the NSW state government, taking the 2020-21 Commonwealth investment to $5.9 million," the spokesperson said.
Labor's Monday media conference could not have been better timed.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant was in Sydney at the same time asking the public to stay away from hospital emergency departments unless it was necessary, which is precisely what the GP after-hours service is designed to encourage.
"While we are very well placed in the global context to manage this case burden, it is important that we all play our part in not placing unnecessary burden on the health system," Dr Chant said.
NSW has recorded more than 110,000 positive COVID tests in the past week and hospital admissions have doubled in five days to 1204, including 95 in intensive care and 25 on ventilators.
Mr Albanese spent two days in the Hunter, a sign of how important the region will be to his election chances.
Hunter candidate Dan Repacholi, whose electorate includes Toronto, Shortland MP Pat Conroy and Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon flanked Mr Albanese as he addressed the media.
Paterson MP Meryl Swanson has tested positive for COVID and is isolating at home with her family.
Mr Albanese reiterated two policies he released last weekend and which Labor also took to the 2019 election: $500 million to finally kick-start fast rail to Sydney and establishing a "strategic fleet" of Australian-flagged merchant ships.
He promised to close loopholes allowing the "exploitation" of foreign labour on ships and to build a merchant fleet to secure the nation's essential supplies in times of crisis.
Foreign vessels would still play an important role but Australia was reaching a point where there would not be an "Australian flag on the back of an Australian ship".
"The idea that we will have no Australian industry, no Australian skills, leaves us very vulnerable," he said.
Asked if establishing a fleet with the private sector would involve government subsidies, he said: "We believe that with proper policies this can certainly be commercially viable."
Mr Albanese said shipping accounted for almost all of Australia's imported and exported goods but only one per cent of seaborne trade was carried by Australian ships.
"The Morrison-Joyce government has put our national security and economic sovereignty at risk by standing idle as large multinationals dumped Australian-flagged and crewed vessels so they could hire cheaper overseas crews," he said.
"Our nation [relies] on foreign governments and companies for our essential imports ... including fuel."
He said a Labor government would establish a taskforce to inform the fleet-building initiative.
"What we need to do is to stop the abuse of foreign labour on foreign ships who are not paid decently," Mr Albanese said.
The ships likely would be privately owned, but Mr Albanese said he would ensure they were available for the defence force to use in times of national crisis, be that natural disaster or conflict.
He pointed to Australia needing to rely on a Norwegian ship to help deliver supplies to the Victorian coastal town of Mallacoota during the 2019 bushfires as a lack of sovereign capability.
Mr Albanese said he wanted to start work on fast rail in the "next term" of government if elected.
Fast rail would cut the trip to Sydney to two hours as an interim to high-speed rail shortening the journey to 45 minutes.
"It's a matter of sitting down with the state government after the election, if we're elected, and working through a timeframe to actually get things commenced in the next term.
"The studies have been done. We know it makes sense. We know it has the support of the business community and has the support of the local community. We should get on with it."
He also repeated his criticism of the government's "failure" to secure enough rapid antigen tests and booster shots to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
He attacked Prime Minister Scott Morrison for resisting calls to provide free rapid antigen tests to those who cannot afford them.
"No one should be excluded from getting a rapid antigen test because of their income," he said.
"With months and months to prepare, from a pandemic that has been going for two years, it is unbelievable that the government has told people to not go and get tested but test themselves with a rapid antigen test that isn't available and isn't affordable."
- with AAP