October Federal Budget 2022-23
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) has welcomed initiatives in last night's Budget to address health inequalities in our community, but more needs to be done to provide safe and appropriate health care now and in the future.
ACN CEO Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward said as nurses, we worry about the impact of the rising cost of living on consumers, so it was pleasing to see the Government announce initiatives to provide cost of living relief, including cheaper medicines, more affordable housing and increasing wages for those in the aged care sector.
"We welcome initiatives presented by the Government at last night's Budget to improve social determinants of health for those experiencing poverty, disability, and discrimination, but I worry about our health systems," Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward said.
"Nurses are a fundamental part of the social fabric of society, we. We are in every setting and every postcode.
"As a profession, we don't just worry about the physical health of Australians, but we worry about the mental health and the pressures placed on our communities with increasing costs of living costs.
"We continue to talk, but not act on the increasing burden of disease we're facing as a nation.
"We continue to talk about improving our primary health and delivering equitable health care, but leave nurses overworked and underfunded.
"We need a sustainable health system for decades to come with high -quality care at its heart.
"All consumers deserve the right to access the highest standards of nursing care irrelevant of their postcode.
"A failure to provide strategic and long-term investment in the nursing profession will have dire consequences for the health of Australians."
