NSW Labor leader Luke Foley (right) with opposition health spokesman Walt Secord. Photo: Jane Dyson
Australia’s peak medical body has slammed the NSW opposition’s key health policy to establish four nurse-led walk-in treatment centres as a “waste of money”.
The Australian Medical Association said the proposed $40 million clinics, modelled on nurse-led clinics introduced in the ACT in 2010, were not supported by evidence and would fragment patient care in the public health system.
“The proposal shows a lack of understanding of the operation of the NSW public hospital system and goes against established evidence of promoting good quality care,” AMA (NSW) president Saxon Smith said.
“There is actually evidence suggesting nurse-led clinics can make the quality of healthcare worse.”
Lauching the policy on Sunday, Opposition Leader Luke Foley said the proposed clinics would be a “new frontier in NSW health” and would “take pressure off emergency departments”.
He dismissed the AMA’s criticism as doctors “protecting their patch” and said he was “not interested in turf wars over work practices”.
“Go to any emergency department and the hard-working nurses will tell you the people who work there are stressed,” Mr Foley said.
Under the proposal, 45 nurses would be employed across the four clinics and would treat minor injuries and illnesses. Two clinics would be opened in western Sydney, one on the NSW Central Coast and one in the Illawarra region, Mr Foley said.
But Dr Smith said the policy was based on a flawed understanding of pressures on NSW hospital’s emergency wards, which had had a decline in the least urgent “triage 5” cases over the past few years.
“Our emergency departments are under significant pressure but this pressure is coming from sicker patients. So obviously our push and pull factors are different from the ACT.”
Dr Smith also said a 2013 independent evaluation of the nurse-led clinics showed they either increased attendance in hospital emergency departments or had no impact.
But former ACT chief minister Katy Gallagher, who appeared beside Mr Foley at the launch, said a decision to relocate the clinics in the community, rather than within hospital grounds, had addressed this issue.
NSW Premier Mike Baird backed the AMA’s attack on the policy.
“They said [Labor’s plan is] a complete waste of money, trials have been done and it doesn’t work and I think it shows the depth of policy analysis being done by the opposition. The other thing they haven’t told us is where the money is coming from,” he said.