Dr Chris Moy on ABC News Breakfast on Health in the SA and Federal election, Omicron and public hospitals and funding

LISA MILLAR:         I want to have a bit of a chat about health because that's ended up being the primary focus of the South Australian election campaign. South Australia is regarded as having done pretty well through COVID, and what we saw from both sides of politics was a lot of agreement on how to approach the restrictions and how to look after South Australians. But there is a lot of disagreement about how to go forward with the health budget and with hospitals; a lot of discussion about ramping, ambulances waiting to get patients in to hospital. I want to bring in Chris Moy, who is the AMA Vice President. Good morning to you, Chris.

CHRIS MOY: Good morning, Lisa.

LISA MILLAR:         Chris, you have been such a familiar face to News Breakfast viewers and I put you on notice and said: I'm coming to Adelaide, where you live, take you out for a coffee, get you on the show, and meet you in person. And what have you done to me?

CHRIS MOY: Well, I'm unfortunately quarantining as a close contact. So I'm living the life of a lot of people out of a fold-out bed and the second bathroom as a lot of people have had to do right throughout this pandemic. So I've got a bit of my own medicine, I'm afraid.

LISA MILLAR:         Well, it does go to show that COVID still hangs over as a shadow on this campaign, doesn't it? And we're seeing in Adelaide especially a real spike in the numbers. It's a second wave of Omicron, isn't it?

CHRIS MOY: Yeah, it's been interesting because there has been this wave. I mean, overall, South Australia has been thought to have navigated pandemic waters pretty well, and life here has been very, very settled really until the last three months or so, and that's because the Government has had the wisdom to leave the decision-making to an independent body called the Transition Committee, led by the Chief Public Health Officer, Nicola Spurrier, and also the Police Commissioner, Grant Stevens. Now, because of that, there's been this sense of independence and transparency about decision-making, which has been based on health and science and a fair bit of trust and a good relationship between the Government and Opposition in just trying to keep the population calm and focused on the task.

            But this recent outbreak is reflected right across the country. We've seen this massive increase really from a culmination of the removal of restrictions, the increased movement, and in South Australia, it's been Mad March, we call it, the festival, and also BA.2, the new Omicron variant. And I think, at the moment, the key number- although we're looking at the numbers going up, all the health authorities are holding onto their seats at the moment, trying to work out whether this is going to be reflected in the key number, which is whether there's going to be an increase in the number of dangerous cases in hospital, and that is going to be all down to whether the buffer of the number of boosters that we've had will be enough to sort of reduce that and not cause what happened in January.

LISA MILLAR:         Chris, let's talk about this campaign and how both sides have treated the issue of health. How do you rate them?

CHRIS MOY: Well, look, it's been a really interesting campaign, and I suspect governments across Australia are going to be looking at this very carefully as a litmus test. Look, there's been such a contrast. So one party, Labor, have essentially had a shock-and-awe campaign with significant commitments on health. That's more doctors, more nurses, more ambulance officers, and to stop ramping, but with a significant increase in funding. And the Liberal Party have stayed- felt that, you know, they've done a great job in terms of the pandemic, but that most of their priorities will be other issues.

            Now, look, if the polling is to be believed at the moment, it does seem that the health message is really getting out there and Australians- and South Australians are really feeling, like, we need to fix this ramping issue and also some concerns about recent deaths when ambulances haven't actually got out to people because they've been held up in ramping. And I think that reflects the AMA position. A lot of surveys right across the country that health is a priority, which is different from- within government, I've been hearing, look, we've done COVID, we've sorted it all out, health is done. We don't need to fund health anymore. Whereas I think there is a sense on the ground from a lot of Australians saying, if I survive COVID but get sick or die because I don't get my health sorted out, then what's the point? There's nothing without health.

            So the AMA view has really been to try and get the states but also the Federal Government to finally commit on a 50-50 funding model to end the blame game finally, and the states also committing that if they get increased funding from the Commonwealth, they won't reduce their funding commensurately. So, really, this is a very interesting election and we'll get to see whether, in fact, that health is an issue and whether that will reverberate through the country, particularly coming into a federal election.

LISA MILLAR:         Yeah, well, I'm sensing from your words, Chris, that you're thinking it might, based on what you've seen over the last few weeks, that the Federal Government does need to look at this election and the voters' view about health spending, seeing it as separate to COVID funding and that they should take notice.

CHRIS MOY: Well, yeah. You know, I've definitely heard this thing. We've done health because we gave all this money for COVID. That money went to vaccines and to the testing and all the treatment so far and that's not ongoing health treatment. As I said, we are now facing a much worse situation after COVID because we've got the delayed elective surgery, delayed treatment, delayed diagnosis with people worse than they were before. A large population who are now very tired and haven't had their conditions treated. And I think the other one is long COVID. We see these terrible numbers about potential increases in heart attacks, strokes, and also things like this terrible study showing that we've got potentially up to 2 per cent brain shrinkage even after mild COVID. So we are talking about a significant increased burden in health, and to look away from health, I think, would be very silly and it'll be interesting to see whether there is going to be a view here and also reflected throughout the country that health is still an issue.

LISA MILLAR:         Chris Moy, always appreciate your insights on News Breakfast. Thanks very much. Sorry we couldn't do it in person. Next time.

CHRIS MOY: Next time. Enjoy the market and the city.

LISA MILLAR:         I will. It must have been that apple I had, Mads and Isk. It's an apple a day, keeps the doctor away and we lost Dr Chris Moy. (Ends)