National cabinet has delayed taking any decisions about funding Australia's healthcare sector, opting to wait until later in the year to decide how the federal government, states and territories will address the strained sector.
Hospital emergency departments across the country have been reporting growing waiting times as they struggle to meet demands for treatments.
The nation's leaders received a report on Medicare, which the new federal government commissioned after coming to power.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said health would be the top priority of national cabinet in the first six months of the year, vowing to discuss funding when they again meet in late April.
States and territories want the federal government to permanently commit to a funding model struck at the height of the pandemic but the Commonwealth is yet to agree to that.
The meeting came amid widespread problems that include GP shortages, rising out-of-pocket fees, lengthy waiting lists and overburdened public hospitals.
"We all agree on what the issues are," Mr Albanese said after the meeting.
"Part of the issue is people are turning up at emergency departments because they don't have other options.
"We need to improve primary healthcare, we need to improve access to GP services."
Medicare report seeks overhaul
Federal Health Minster Mark Butler has repeatedly described Medicare as being in the worst shape it has been in its 40-year history.
The Medicare taskforce he initiated met six times over six months and presented 21 recommendations to government.
They included the taskforce's "vision" for a primary care system where "coordinated multidisciplinary teams of health care professionals work to their full scope of practice to provide quality person-centred continuity of care".
That could see an overhaul of how complex chronic diseases are managed.
Mr Butler said that, when Medicare was first created, visits to GPs were episodic and relatively short.
He said GPs now faced more instances of treating chronic conditions and older Australians, who tend to have more than one condition that needs treating.
That prompted the taskforce to recommend allowing GPs to bill for longer consults.
Mr Butler said his government had set aside $750 million that would go towards the report's recommendations but would make further funding announcements ahead of the next federal budget in May.
"Our government has no higher priority than strengthening Medicare and rebuilding general practice to ensure that Australians get the care they need when and where they need it in the community, in order to take pressure off our deeply stressed hospital systems," he said.
"I want to tell Australians honestly: It's not going to be quick It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be fixed in one budget."
Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston said the report had no urgency or specific actions to tackle issues in the sector.
"For months and months, we have seen the prime minister and the minister for health talk about the crisis in healthcare and the workforce shortages that are putting significant pressures on the system," she said.
"But once again, we are not seeing any tangible plan from the government to address this critical issue."
Unions calling for immediate action
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation has urged the nation's leaders to not waste what it calls a historic opportunity for reform.
"Nurses … have been unable to fully work to their full capacity," the federations' federal secretary, Annie Butler, said.
"Expertise and skill must be central to the reform of Australia’s universal healthcare system."
The union wants general practice nurses funded to perform chronic disease management checks, wound care, immunisations, sick certificates and health promotion and prevention.
"[This] would certainly reduce the number of people having to go to hospital for these everyday care episodes," she said.
Doctors wanted more funding for bulk billing in GP practices, however, Mr Butler said people would have to wait until the budget to see if that was something his government would adopt.
The Australian Medical Association's Steve Robson described that as a missed opportunity.
"There is nothing in the report that will deal with that crisis and make it easier to see a GP," Professor Robson said.
