Ms Catherine Clarke:

We are continuing, and recruitment is ongoing for these clinics albeit that, as people know from our national service plan for 2024, our pay and numbers strategy is yet to be finalised. As it stands at the moment, recruitment is ongoing for those specialists where recruitment is permitted in those areas. On physiotherapists, I understand from the design of this that there was consultation with lots of clinics regarding the kinds of resources required and each determined what it needed. That informed where there are physiotherapists and where there are not. On the subject of urban versus rural, clinics were set up on hospital group basis. The Senator will be aware that we are moving to the regions at the moment. However, the hospital groups were in place at the time, and each hospital group was allocated post-acute and long-acute Covid clinics. There is a good geographical spread in clinic availability and accessibility.