The Consumer Medicines Line (1300 MEDICINE) is to close from 30 July; this is being pitched as supporting “a broader approach to strengthen primary care in Australia”. Sounds like doublespeak to make George Orwell proud.
Meanwhile, a new clinical care standard for stroke highlights the importance of timely rehabilitation, individualised care planning and follow-up, while research underscores the importance of water fluoridation for preventing tooth decay, especially for children from poorer backgrounds.
Our columnist also brings yet more concerns about the aged care star ratings, news from a preventive health roundtable, and finds himself in loud agreement with Dr Nick Coatsworth.
The quotable?
…behind every first responder is a family making sacrifices and supporting loved ones through long shifts, overnight callouts and stressful situations.”
Charles Maskell-Knight writes:
Monday 8 June was the official King’s Birthday holiday in all of Australia except Queensland and WA, and saw the release of the King’s Birthday honours list including many health workers and researchers.
Health sector groups congratulating members and colleagues recognised in the list included NACCHO, the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA), Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), the Australian Dental Association (ADA), Australian Medical Association (AMA), Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA), the Pharmacy Guild, and the Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP).
Aged care star ratings
Regular Croakey readers will recall that I have been a consistent critic of the methodology of the aged care star ratings since they were introduced in late 2022.
I have not been alone: Dr Rodney Jilek, managing director of Aged Care Consulting & Advisory Services Australia, has published a number of scathing articles (see this report), and every now and then the issue has been picked up in the mainstream media.
In late 2024 the Commonwealth Ombudsman issued a statement critical of the system, noting inter alia that “people may struggle to comprehend how a provider can have a three star compliance rating when the [Quality and Safety] Commission is not satisfied that the provider is ensuring its workforce is competent”.
Last year the Inspector-General of Aged Care, in her 2025 progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, concluded “despite iterative enhancements since its inception, a range of well-documented shortcomings continue to undermine the effectiveness of star ratings in distilling useful information to older Australians about the performance of aged care homes”.
On 10 June, Caroline Egan writing for The Weekly Source published an article based on the latest data, which found one aged care home with a one-star rating (“significant improvement needed”) and none with a two-star rating (“improvement needed”).
Egan “contends it is implausible that only one aged care home [out of 2,180] would be classified as ‘needs improvement’”.
She concludes “the fact that only one aged care home in Australia is rated ‘needs improvement’ raises questions about whether the Star Ratings system is accurately reflecting quality”.
“Consumers were promised greater transparency, yet it appears that Star Ratings may not be telling us the full story.”
We all know in the real world in any given population (students, schools, restaurants, builders, accountants, even public servants), more than 0.04 percent of individual cases “need improvement”.
Yet the Government wants us to believe that residential aged care is (almost) perfect.
Government
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA) announced that the Consumer Medicines Line (1300 MEDICINE) would close from 30 July.
The line has operated for many years, providing advice from pharmacists during eastern states business hours on the safe and effective use of prescription, over-the-counter and other medicines (including complementary medicines).
DHDA said while the line “has provided a valuable service to Australians… there is now a wide range of trusted and high-quality supports available to help people safely and confidently manage their medicines”.
The Department also said that “Australians can get advice about their medicines from their GP, nurse practitioner, midwife or community pharmacist”, and that “these providers know your medical history and can give advice that is personal and coordinated”.
I am confident GPs, midwifes, and community pharmacists existed when the line was established, and were available to provide “trusted and high-quality [and] personal and coordinated” advice on medicines at that time.
So what has changed? Other than a need to achieve budgetary savings?
Anyway, we can all be reassured that “closure of the Consumer Medicines Line supports a broader approach to strengthen primary care in Australia”. George Orwell must have joined the media team at DHDA to come up with that line!
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said it had “expanded its priority focus areas to include unapproved peptide products, following increased detection of unlawful importation, supply and advertising, posing potential risks to consumer safety”.
The TGA said it has not assessed many peptide products supplied in Australia, meaning they are unapproved therapeutic goods, may not meet required standards for quality, safety or efficacy, and may pose risks if used without medical supervision.
TGA head Professor Anthony Lawler said “Australians should be very cautious about buying unapproved peptide products online, particularly from overseas websites or through online platforms or social media”.
“If you don’t know exactly what’s in the vial, where it was made or whether it’s sterile, you could be putting your health at serious risk.”
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released updates to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework covering:
- 1.09 Diabetes
- 2.05 Education outcomes for young people
- 2.06 Educational participation and attainment of adults
- 2.10 Community safety
- 2.12 Child protection
- 2.14 First Nations people with access to their traditional lands and waters
- 3.17 Regular general practitioner or health service.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) published the Stroke Clinical Care Standard (2026), including “the latest evidence-based guidance for stroke treatment in hospital and to ease patients’ transition to the community”.
It said the new standard “includes a stronger focus on timely rehabilitation, individualised care planning and follow-up after stroke”.
Consumer and public health groups
COTA said while recent moves to address aged care wait times and concerns about Support at Home assessments are important steps, the latest figures show too many older Australians are still waiting for the support they need.
COTA CEO Patricia Sparrow said “there are still more than 100,000 older Australians waiting for support [after assessment] and more than another 140,000 waiting for assessment”.
“That’s a huge number of people left waiting for help with everyday tasks, their health and their independence.”
She added: “COTA has long argued that no older Australian should wait more than 30 days to receive the support they’ve been assessed as needing. We are still a long way from achieving that goal.”
Sparrow said the decision to prioritise access for people with motor-neurone disease was welcome, but there were other “conditions and circumstances that would also require urgent changes to people’s care and support”.
She also said it was important for the assessment system to include a mechanism for “health professionals to override automated recommendations where clinical judgement indicates a different outcome is needed”, and welcomed the Opposition’s foreshadowed legislation.
The Heart Foundation said it would be making a submission to the FSANZ consultation on Health Star Ratings (HSR) in support of mandating the HSR system.
The Foundation said it considered “people in Australia deserve clear, honest and consistent information about the food they are buying, but the current voluntary system means this information is often missing or selectively applied”.
“Making HSRs mandatory will ensure all packaged foods provide the same clear, easy-to-understand nutrition information, helping people compare products and make informed choices. There is also overwhelming public support for mandatory labels, with 82 percent of adults wanting HSR on all packaged foods.”
First Nations
The Rural Doctors Association of Tasmania (RDAT) welcomed the appointment of rural generalist Dr Claire Griffiths as its new President, “marking an exciting new chapter for the organisation and rural healthcare advocacy across the state”.
RDAT said Griffiths is “a proud palawa woman from Tasmania’s north-west coast, [and] brings a wealth of experience, passion and commitment to rural medicine, having worked across hospitals and general practices throughout regional Tasmania under the Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway”.
Griffiths said her priorities “will include advancing the integration of Rural Generalist roles within Tasmania’s public health system, advocating for investment in the infrastructure in our district hospitals and rural sites, and strengthening collaboration between Government, health services, primary care and the rural health workforce to address Tasmania’s needs”.
Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) welcomed the ACT Government’s announcement of $1.873 million over four years from 2026–27 to sustain the IAHA ACT Health Academy program, supporting 30 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander high school students to undertake an Australian School-based Apprenticeship Certificate III in Allied Health Assistance annually in partnership with the Canberra Institute of Technology.
IAHA CEO Donna Murray said the decision “reflects a genuine understanding of the critical need for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, wellbeing, and community services workforce across the ACT and surrounding regions”.
Trade unions
The Australian Association of Psychologists (AAP) said guidelines developed by the TGA to support access to 3, 4 methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybine under the Authorised Prescriber (AP) scheme “ignores the expertise of the psychology profession”.
AAP Executive Director Tegan Carrison said “while the TGA has broadened the list of professions that may participate in psychedelic-assisted therapy as lead therapists, it has simultaneously retained the requirement that psychologists must hold clinical endorsement to act in the primary therapist role”.
Carrison added “yet again, psychologists without clinical endorsement are being excluded. These endorsement-based restrictions are not evidence-based and are contributing to unnecessary workforce shortages, increased costs, and reduced access to care”.
The Australian College of Audiology (ACAud), the peak professional body representing audiometrists and audiologists, issued an open letter regarding the current MBS Review Advisory Committee (MRAC) consideration of whether appropriately qualified audiometrists should be able to provide selected Medicare-funded hearing services.
ACAud said the letter was prompted by comments published in The Medical Republic from AMA President McMullen, who said that audiometrists have less training than audiologists.
ACAud argue that while audiologists and audiometrists undertake different training, it “should not be assumed… that a difference in educational breadth automatically means one profession is inherently more capable than another within a shared scope of practice”.
“Across Australia’s health care system, many professions have different educational pathways while working collaboratively within overlapping scopes of practice. Hearing healthcare is no different.”
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) marked Thank a First Responder Day (10 June) “recognising the critical role Rural Generalists play in emergency response across rural, remote and First Nations communities”.
ACRRM President Dr Rod Martin said “in rural and remote communities, Rural Generalists work shoulder to shoulder with paramedics, police, firefighters and retrieval teams to provide urgent care where and when it is needed most”.
Martin added “behind every first responder is a family making sacrifices and supporting loved ones through long shifts, overnight callouts and stressful situations”.
The ADA reported on research led by academics at the University of Queensland, and including colleagues at Adelaide University and the Institute of Science Tokyo, which found “while water fluoridation is beneficial in preventing tooth decay across the whole population, the benefits are even greater for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds”.
Associate Professor Yusuke Matsuyama, from the Institute of Science Tokyo, said “the group to have the most benefits [from fluoridated water] were more likely to be children from single-parent households, with lower household income, have parents not working, and live in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas”.
The AMA released a Position statement on medical care for people in residential aged care homes, warning that residents are unable to access regular GP care because of systematic failings in the aged care system.
President Dr Danielle McMullen said “the AMA wants to see investment in integrated care models, fair funding, modern digital infrastructure, and sustainable workforce strategies so aged care residents receive high-quality care”.
The AMA also marked RSV Awareness Week, urging people to speak with their GP about vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
McMullen said “there are now funded vaccines for people who need protection most, with the Government this year adding the vaccine to the National Immunisation Program for people aged 75 years and older”. This follows the addition of the maternal vaccine to the program last year.
In a similar vein, the RACGP urged people to visit their GPs to receive their annual flu vaccination, saying a slow start to the flu season this year meant there was still time to be vaccinated.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) said it had begun its “landmark” Nurses and Midwives Work Value Case before the Fair Work Commission, “seeking long-overdue wage increases for nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing, to recognise the true value of the work they perform across the Australian health care system”.
The ANMF will argue that current wage rates under the Nurses Award 2020 no longer reflect the true value, complexity and responsibility of nursing and midwifery work.
The case follows the Aged Care Work Value Case, in which similar arguments resulted in nurses and personal care workers in aged care receiving minimum award rate increases of between 15 and 30 percent.
ANMF Federal Secretary Annie Butler said “the skills needed to provide nursing care have been characterised as ‘innate’ female qualities rather than skills”.
“This landmark case will address the long-standing set of assumptions that have shaped wage setting in female dominated industries for far too long.
“The work of nurses and midwives has grown and intensified over the years, yet their wages have failed to keep pace and simply do not recognise the true value of the care they deliver.
“The ANMF maintains the nature, skill and responsibility required to perform nursing and midwifery work in modern health settings, certainly justifies increases to award wages.”
The Australian Psychological Society (APS) said it was continuing its collaboration with the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling to reduce gambling harm through the promotion of evidence-based resources for psychologists.
APS President Dr Kelly Gough said “psychological science provides important insights into the behavioural, emotional and social factors that contribute to gambling harm”.
“This partnership supports psychologists with practical, evidence-based guidance to strengthen early identification, intervention and support for individuals and families affected by gambling harm.”
NSW has one poker machine for every 88 people, and data from last year suggest poker machines in NSW are taking $1 million per hour from gamblers. Perhaps the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling could turn its mind to harm reduction at the front end by reducing the number of machines?
Dietitians Australia said it had joined leading medical and public health organisations at a preventive health roundtable organised by independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps “calling for urgent action on a range of nutrition and food policy measures, including a ban on unhealthy food marketing to children and the introduction of a sugar-sweetened beverage tax”.
Dieticians Australia said it called for the Government to:
- Establish a clear and robust nutrition governance system, on par with other foundational systems for health, wellbeing and productivity
- Complete the review of Australia’s suite of nutrition-related policies and plans, which have not been comprehensively updated since 1992, to assess whether they are fit for today’s food environment
- Introduce feasible and effective restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children across broadcast, streaming and digital environments, consistent with findings of the Government’s own feasibility study
- Implement a tiered sugar-sweetened beverage tax as part of a coordinated suite of food environment reforms to reduce chronic disease, drive industry reformulation and enable preventative public health measures for children.
Industry groups
The Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) said “when the Government established its second talkfest to address the viability crisis caused by health insurers underfunding private hospitals, we labelled it ‘a dud’ that was ‘set up to fail’”.
“More than two years after this pitiful saga began, the Government’s CEO Forum has met for the final time under its current terms of reference without yielding a single solution.”
Over the years Ministers of both political persuasions have believed that private hospitals and private health insurers can find common ground and agree on reforms which will support the private health sector as a whole.
As I have observed several times, expecting agreement from hospitals and insurers is like expecting the turkeys and the poulterers to agree on a date for Christmas.
Members Health Fund Alliance (Members Health, the lobby group for private health insurers which do not distribute profits) reported on a survey which showed private health insurance had dethroned working from home as the most-wanted job perk.
According to the Ipsos survey commissioned by Members Health, between 50 and 60 percent of respondents in major states said they would like their employers to cover the costs of private health insurance.
The Pharmacy Guild claimed that “pharmacist prescribing could unlock $1 billion in savings, free 10 million GP visits and prevent 30,000 hospitalisations annually”, based on modelling from HTANALYSTS.
HTANALYSTS Principal, Strategy and Social Impact, Irene Deltetto, said “behind every dollar in this analysis is a patient who waited too long to see a GP, or a hospitalisation that could have been avoided”.
“HTANALYSTS modelled that $21 billion in overall economic impact would be created across just four conditions through pharmacist autonomous prescribing.”
The Guild called on the Government to implement the report’s three recommendations relating to nationally consistent prescribing powers; sustainable funding to support access; and connected digital health systems.
The Guild did not release the report, but made it available on request. The released version does not yet include case studies on asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hormonal contraception, and cardiovascular risk reduction as the Guild is working with peak bodies on these sections.
A copy of the current version is available here.
Unfortunately I did not receive it until late on 12 June, so did not have an opportunity to review it in detail before completing this column, but I intend to write a separate article about it shortly. A preliminary reading suggests it does not include much detail about methodology.
Politicians and parliamentary committees
The Senate inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 held hearings on 9, 10 and 11 June before its reporting date on 16 June.
Health groups to make submissions or give evidence included Allied Health Professions Australia, Catholic Health Australia, Dieticians Australia (arguing protecting dietetic support in the NDIS will save lives), and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (arguing NDIS reforms must not leave people with severe mental illness behind).
International organisations
The OECD released a report on improving quality of care through the OECD Patient Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS).
The report identifies how PaRIS results have been disseminated, interpreted and used in health policy and practice in the 19 countries that participated in PaRIS Cycle 1 (running from 2018 to 2025).
It found:
- Many countries (including Australia) published national reports or summary outputs, often structured around the PaRIS-10 indicators, and organised policy dialogues, stakeholder meetings or targeted briefings
- Seven countries reported using PaRIS to identify gaps in primary care, particularly in care co-ordination and digital health; four reported using PaRIS to confirm previously identified health care challenges from the patient perspective; and nine reported using PaRIS as an evidence base for ongoing reform
- Seven countries reported embedding or planning to embed PaRIS indicators into national health care performance measurement and quality monitoring systems, and others were using them in accreditation processes.
There is clearly scope for Australia to make better use of the findings. The report suggested that countries could strengthen the uptake of the indicators by:
- Convening a stakeholder group from early stages to discuss the study design in the national context, support recruitment and data collection, disseminate results, interpret findings, and develop policy priorities
- Planning the communication and dissemination strategy ahead of time
- Ensuring close collaboration between policymakers and project team by establishing a steering committee that includes key actors in the implementation and use of results
- Increase knowledge of PROMs (patient-reported outcome measures) and PREMs (patient-reported experience measures) among patients, healthcare professionals and policymakers.
Finally
I don’t often agree with Dr Nick Coatsworth, sometime deputy Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer.
But this week I found myself cheering as he posted on LinkedIn:
“I’ve been fascinated by the coordinated LinkedIn campaign from the AMA, Colleges and Specialist societies deflecting the specialists’ fees debate away from the pricing behaviour of individual doctors and onto the Government and insurers for not increasing rebates.
“There isn’t a single serious person who thinks that indexation of the MBS would have mitigated the cost blow outs for specialist fees. Of course it should have been indexed, nobody disputes that.
“But indexation is a bit player in this. Practice costs are probably more relevant. But still far from the whole story.
“So here is my proposal. If you are a proceduralist posting on LinkedIn about MBS rebates and CPI, please include 10 yrs of your ATO notice of assessments, your trust accounts and your super balance.
“Then we might be able to understand what’s really going on here.”
As I noted in last week’s column, according to the Australian Taxation Office, five of the top six highest earning occupations (measured by taxable income) are various kinds of medical specialties.
Consultations and inquiries
Here is our weekly list of requests by government bodies and parliamentary committees for responses to consultations or submissions to inquiries, arranged in order of submission deadlines. Please let us know if there are any to add for next week’s column.
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Consultation on sunsetting Private Health Insurance Rules
19 June
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Health Star Rating System
21 June
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Proposed amendments to the Poisons Standard
30 June
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Public consultation on interim decision to amend the Poisons Standard in relation to psilocybine
3 July
Monash University
Dementia Guidelines
6 July
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Online prescribing services: sharing medicines-related information to My Health Record by default
7 July
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Review of young child formula
7 July
Medical Services Advisory Committee
- 177 Lutetium PSMA-617 for prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-positive, taxane-naïve patients with metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer
- F-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for evaluation of complex infection
- Transcranial Doppler bubble test for patent foramen ovale
- Testing for Chromogranin A in patients with neuroendocrine neoplasms
- In situ hybridisation testing of tumour tissue to detect viral genomes (EBV and HPV)
- Investigations to support the use of PBS-subsidised lecanemab in people with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease
- Testing for hepatitis B virus and hepatitis B virus surface antigen to support the use of PBS subsidised bepirovisen in people with chronic hepatitis B
10 July
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Consultation on increasing transparency of Good Manufacturing Practice inspection outcomes
13 July
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (and all National Boards except the Medical Board)
Have your say on how practitioners stay up to date and connected with their profession
17 July
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Radiopharmaceutical regulation in Australia
31 July
Senate Community Affairs Committee
Support at Home Program
31 July
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Co-design the future of aged care Application Programming Interfaces
29 August
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability
Inquiry into the access to and affordability of medical specialists
16 October
Author details
Charles Maskell-Knight PSM was a senior public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Health for over 25 years before retiring in 2021. He worked as a senior adviser to the Aged Care Royal Commission in 2019-20. He is a member of Croakey Health Media; we thank and acknowledge him for providing this column as a probono service to our readers. Follow on X/Twitter at @CharlesAndrewMK, and on Bluesky at: @charlesmk.bsky.social.
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