Ms Anne O'Connor:

I do not know the specifics of the situation the Senator referred to but, in general, there are capacity challenges. We just do not have enough GPs, full stop, for whatever we want them to do. What we are seeing across the board at the minute - members may be hearing it from their constituents - is that there are challenges for people in accessing the services of GPs. To take on an out-of-hours service requires GPs to do many more shifts, unless they employ another doctor to take that work on from afar. For local out-of-hours services, where local GPs provide the service, to expand basically means doing more shifts. Depending on the capacity that is available, that can be a decider for them. Some out-of-hours services bring in doctors just to provide that service, rather than local GPs doing it. It depends on the specifics.

In terms of the funding available for out-of-hours services, that is something we have to look at, as I said earlier, in terms of the demand that is currently being experienced, particularly in light of the response to the Ukrainian people. Notwithstanding that, we know we have been very challenged in terms of GP service provision and this is something we are looking at in terms of GP training numbers and all of that. I imagine the difficulty with the out-of-hours service in the Senator's area is related to that broader issue as well as to the availability of GPs. My colleague, Ms O'Neill, might have more detail on that.