Dr Sophie Scamps, Independent candidate for Mackellar, has today released her health policies with a call to recognise climate change as a health emergency, for targeted action on mental health and to adequately fund Australia's public hospitals.
Citing record wait times for elective surgery and mental health services, staffing shortages in aged care and nursing, and a lack of funding for public hospitals, Dr. Scamps, a former emergency doctor at Mona Vale Hospital and community GP, says addressing national and local health issues will be among her top priorities.
"As a former emergency doctor, I have experienced first-hand the impacts of the government's funding cuts to our public hospitals. As an Independent in Parliament, I will fight to ensure our public healthcare system is not eroded further by future governments," said Dr. Scamps.
A pillar of Dr. Scamps' health policy is recognising climate change as a public health emergency and the Independent candidate has called on the next government to develop a National Climate, Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
"The climate crisis is a health crisis. Heat has killed more Australians than any other extreme weather event while fossil fuel air pollution contributes to more than 5,000 Australian deaths per year," said Dr. Scamps.
"There are also significant mental health impacts associated with natural disasters and climate change that are going unaddressed. We know 'eco-grief', being experienced by young Australians as they experience anxiety about their future, is on the rise. We also know there are significant mental health issues in the communities ravaged by the Black Summer bushfires while the psychological impacts of the floods in northern NSW and Queensland will last long after the physical clean-up is complete."
"While reducing our emissions is the best thing we can do to protect the community from the health impacts of climate change, we also need a government that recognises the physical and mental health impacts of climate change and develops policies and directs funding to where it is needed most."
Other aspects of Dr. Scamps' health policy include:
- support for a Royal Commission into the Government's handling of the pandemic
- increasing Commonwealth funding to ensure public hospitals can provide both inpatient acute care and outpatient chronic care services
- expanding public outpatient specialist services at Northern Beaches Hospital
- funding a dedicated mental health service for youth at Northern Beaches Hospital
- implementing all recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety
- tackling Australia's mental health crisis by enabling earlier and increased access to expanded inpatient and community-based mental health services
- increasing wages for nurses, midwives and aged care workers
- addressing staffing shortages by supporting nursing staff and midwives to retrain and then rejoin the workforce after taking long periods of absence (parental leave for example)
Dr. Scamps' policies also aim to address health and mental health shortfalls in her electorate on Sydney's Northern Beaches.
"The Northern Beaches has a population that is almost the size of Canberra, yet ongoing cuts in public health funding mean many people can't access the public health, or mental health care they need," said Dr. Scamps.
"For example, there is no dedicated inpatient mental health service for young people at Northern Beaches Hospital. This has to change."
"While people in Mackellar also have very limited options to access public outpatient services at Northern Beaches Hospital. This means only private options are available which means locals face significant out of pocket expenses for services that are funded by the government elsewhere in Sydney. We need to expand public outpatient services on the Northern Beaches to ensure the community has access to universal specialist care," said Dr. Scamps
"Policy decisions are all about priorities. Rather than prioritising pork barrelling and party political rorts, as an Independent I will push the government of the day to prioritise adequately funding our public health system," explained Dr. Scamps.
