Meanwhile, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has affirmed its commitment to a greater role for GPs in both diagnosis and prescription in ADHD treatment.
Coalition’s health spokesperson Senator Anne Ruston spent her allotted time in Senate estimates on Thursday alleging that the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing was “either coerced or asked to make departmental communications reflect what the government was doing” during the lead-up to the May election.
She said the website had changed from saying “Getting stronger after 40 years” to “Strengthening Medicare” in late March, early April.
“The timing is just so wildly coincidental that this was up and running as a campaign during the election period, and now it’s gone,” said Ms Ruston.
“So it wasn’t up before, it’s not up now…”
A Department spokesperson denied the allegation.
“The campaign was not operational during the caretaker period,” they said.
Ms Ruston persisted:
“So if I went on to that website during the election campaign, it would not have been ‘Strengthening Medicare?’”
The answer came back:
“The phrase ‘strengthening Medicare’ might have been used because it was used in quite a number of policy decisions and announcements prior to the election, but the campaign materials were not on the website during the election, during the caretaker period,” the Department spokesperson said.
Ms Ruston:
“So the Strengthening Medicare website that previously was Getting Stronger after 40 Years – that changed to Strengthening Medicare – was ,aken down before the campaign started? Is that what you’re just telling me?”
“The campaign website was not active during the caretaker period,” the spokesperson replied.
In what was a wide-ranging session, Senator Malarrndirri McCarthy, representing the health minister, told the committee that national harmonisation of ADHD diagnosis and prescription rules would not remove GPs’ already expanded role in some states.
It came in response to Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John’s question about the outcomes of the last Health Ministers’ Meeting in which the state and territory health ministers agreed that ADHD rules needed to be aligned around the country.
“Multiple Labor Senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah asked several straightforward questions about the urgent care clinics, introduced in 2022.
The committee heard that there would be 137 clinics, with 90 now open and the remainder to be operating by the end of the financial year. There have been 1.9 million presentations so far, 27% for acute injury, 63% for acute illness. Just under a third of patients were under 15 years old. Around 29% of presentations were on weekends and about 25% after 5pm on weekdays.
The department said wait time data was promising, mainly in the 15-minute range. And 46% of patients said they would otherwise have presented to an emergency department.
“There was some resistance in the medical profession before we introduced these in 2022. How do you think the profession has responded, particularly general practitioners?” Senator Ananda-Rajah asked Professor Michael Kidd, the chief medical officer.
“There were initial concerns about whether the establishment of urgent care clinics was going to have an impact of on continuity of care, whether it was going to further fragment care, and whether it was going to have an impact on workforce in general practices,” said Professor Kidd.
“As we’ve seen through the evidence … there’s been huge community uptake of the urgent care clinics. We’ve also seen a lot of engagement and communication between urgent care clinics and the general practices where patients may normally receive their care, so the continuity of care is continuing.
“And of course, we’ve seen … a large number of general practitioners who doing some of their work in these urgent care clinics, as well, as well as working in in their regular general practices.”
states have recently … made announcements in relation to this area, either bringing them into effect or flagging an intention to increase access to diagnosis and prescription via an expanded GP pathway,” said Mr Steele-John.
“To clarify: is it the position of the Commonwealth to support increased access to ADHD, diagnosis and prescription via your GP?”
A Department of Health, Disability and Ageing spokesperson replied:
“Commonwealth supports reforms that will make sure that our health workforce is operating closer to the top of the scope of practice.
“We’re consulting about whether or not specifically ADHD prescribing is currently supported for health practitioners, including GPs, to operate at the top of their scope of practice.
“I think the consultations that we’ve seen so far indicate that GPs could play a much greater role in access to medicines to treat ADHD.”
Senator Steele-John turned to Senator McCarthy, representing the health minister, for further clarity, and she provided it.
“Minister, are you able today to give some assurance to the ADHD community in Australia that are very excited about the potential of a greater role for GPs in both diagnosis and prescription, that your government is going to be backing them in their call for a greater role for GPs in this space?” Mr Steele-John asked.
“Minister Butler has worked very strongly in this area, especially since the committee report that came down in 2023,” she said.
“We responded in December 2024, and now we see the discussions at the national level with the states and territories.
“So, there is absolute commitment by our government, especially in this area, and I give that commitment to the families out there who are wanting to see a way through this,” she said.
The commonwealth government is setting up a working group with the health departments in all the jurisdictions, in conjunction with the Health Workforce Task Force, which is a subgroup of the Health Chief Executives’ Forum.
The DoHDA said its work on creating national consistency on ADHD prescribing and diagnosis would be fast-tracked and it would have an update for the health ministers later this month, and report back in December, but there was, as yet, no timeframe for completion.
Mr Steele-John then turned to the other pressing concern for people with ADHD and their families – the “almost constant shortage of medication”.
“I’m aware that the government has approved overseas substitutes and replacements, but this is a temporary solution to what, to me, seems to be becoming a more long-term problem,” he said.
“So my question is this: is the government taking action to ensure that there is a long-term supply of these critical medications?”
The department said it had been “working closely with suppliers” to address the shortage of modified-released methylphenidate medicines, and that “several” of the substitutes approved under s19A of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 were available on the PBS.
Related
Greens Senator Larissa Waters asked the department spokespeople if they were aware that a sexual health public health campaign was being blocked on Google as “explicit content” and was therefore costing $17 per click instead of $5.
The STI awareness campaign was being run by the Sexual and Reproductive Health Alliance, with funds from a commonwealth grant.
The Department representatives said they didn’t know about the problem, but that by all accounts the campaign was doing well and achieving its objective.
“Does government have a policy on dealing with public health campaigns, not just this one, but generally, when Google decides something is adult content in a way that makes the expenditure of Commonwealth funds inefficient and that costs more taxpayer dollars and therefore reaches fewer people?” asked Ms Waters.
“I don’t think that should just be left up to the people who are doing the work. I think that should be government’s concern.”
There was no specific policy, the Department spokesperson replied, though they would certainly intervene if asked to.
At that point, Ms McCarthy stepped in.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it in terms of what happened with Google, and to hear the responses from the Department here, I will follow this up with the minister, and we’ll certainly follow that up with the communications minister as well.”
The hearings continue this evening.
