Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mayo for her question. I take the opportunity to point out that the member for Mayo has an electorate which had the second largest increase in bulk billing in November and December. It was an 8.9 per cent increase in bulk billing, with 13,000 additional free visits to the general practitioner in those two months. She points out, though, a very important commitment made by the former that we have committed to continuing. That is the establishment of a Head to Health centre in Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills.

The Head to Health service is a new model here in Australia. It, like the urgent care clinics, is a walk-in service; you don't need to make an appointment. It's fully bulk billed, so fully free of charge. It is designed to provide a service for people who need urgent mental health support. That might be a person experiencing very real distress, who needs some support in the immediate sense and then a referral, perhaps, to another service or back to their usual practitioner, or people with more severe and complex mental illness, for whom there are limited services—I think members across this chamber would agree—right now.

We're establishing a network of 61, including five services in South Australia. Two are currently open: one in the centre of Adelaide and one in the member for Barker's electorate in Mount Gambier. And three of them will be opened over the course of this year: one in Mount Banker in the Adelaide Hills, one in northern Adelaide and one in Port Pirie in the member for Grey's electorate.

I'm advised that the tender was completed by Country SA Primary Health Network, the PHN, that covers, I think, the entirety of the member for Mayo's electorate. That tender was closed at the end of last year, and the intention is to have that service operating by mid to late 2024.