Budget 2024: Little relief for Primary Care in Budget 24

There has been little relief for primary care practices in Budget 24 according to leading healthcare provider ProCare.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at ProCare says: On the surface the $2.12 billion headline figure that has been made available for primary care and public health over the next four years sounds impressive. However, when you break that down over four years, that’s roughly $530 million per annum.

“When you read even further into the documentation it’s clear that this figure isn’t just for primary care – it’s shared across mental health, community providers, ambulance services and aged care for example, which means that figure is spread extremely thin.

“Additionally, natural population growth and our aging population will soak most of this money up because of the way our health contracts are written,” points out Norwell.

“We knew Budget 24 wasn’t going to provide a lot of relief for primary care, however, this doesn’t make the financial pressures primary care is facing go away. Nor does it address the fact that workforce costs and other inflationary pressures continue to outpace the funding practices are receiving,” continues Norwell.

“Today’s announcement suggests Budget 25 will not provide significant additional relief for general practices, which means it will make it even harder for patients to access healthcare and place further pressure on already stretched secondary care,” she continues.