HEALTH DOESN'T START AT THE HOSPITAL

OUR COMMITMENTS Addressing the GP workforce crisis by implementing a co-designed retention and burnout prevention strategy for existing GPs and offering an incentives package to attract new GPs, providing up to twenty $40,000 grants per year to incentivise GP registrars to train and remain in the ACT. Clearing 75 per cent of the elective surgery waitlist within 12 months of being elected, and ensuring thereafter that all categories of surgery are consistently performed within clinically recommended timeframes. Delivering above-average aged care assessment turnaround times. Developing a long-term strategic vision for providing fully integrated care and making Canberra the best place in the country for a career in health. WHAT WE STAND FOR A nation-leading healthcare system that doesn’t keep you waiting. Addressing points of failure and gaps in the system with a focus on early-intervention solutions, co-designed with the healthcare and mental-health workforce, that prevent excess downstream costs to people’s health and the economy. Investing more heavily in preventative health initiatives and improving access to affordable primary care. Supporting our workforce to meet their objective of providing high-quality, timely, personalised care. Improving our emergency department wait times.

WHY WE NEED CHANGE

With escalating costs of healthcare for patients and providers, and a growing shortage of healthcare professionals leading to distressing wait times and overworked staff, Canberrans are calling for urgent action.

Canberra has the fewest GPs per capita among capital cities, with only 93 per 100,000 people—21.2 per cent below the national average of 115.
The ACT has by far the lowest bulk-billing rate in the country at 37.6 per cent.
Admission of Category 2 elective surgery patients within the recommended 90 days in the ACT has plummeted to 49 per cent from 81 per cent in six years, marking the nation's lowest performance.
In 2022-23, the ACT had the worst emergency wait times visits, with less than 50 per cent of visits completed within the recommended four-hour window.

In the most recent national study of mental health and wellbeing, 25.5 per cent of people in the ACT reported having experienced a mental disorder in the past 12 months – the second-highest in the country.
At an average of 75 days, the ACT has by far the slowest aged care assessment turnaround times in Australia, and they have been getting slower.