3.1 Improving access to health care

2024-25 Budget Measures

Good health is fundamental to employment, with healthy people tending to be more productive in both their paid and unpaid work.⁵¹ Yet women are more likely than men to have poor health during their working years.⁵² Ensuring equitable access to quality health care services is critical to support women’s workforce participation.

Poor health impacts people’s participation in the workforce. Women are more likely than men to have at least one chronic condition, including a mental health condition.⁵³ Women experience higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression, and are slightly more likely than men to experience a mental disorder at some point in their life.⁵⁴

Young people who are trans and gender diverse are at a higher risk of harm caused by discrimination, bullying, social exclusion and physical assault.⁵⁵ Trans and gender diverse young people also have a higher than average prevalence of co-occurring mental health conditions due to minority stress, including depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidality.⁵⁶ The NSW Government is investing $2.4 million to provide support to LGBTQ+ people and their families across the State, including through The Gender Centre.

Women are more likely than men to see a general practitioner or medical specialist and more likely to be admitted to hospital.⁵⁷ As a result women spend more on out-of-pocket health care costs.⁵⁸ A recent national survey of over 2,500 women found that two-thirds of respondents reported experiencing gender bias or discrimination when seeking health care, particularly for sexual and reproductive health.⁵⁹

The Government’s general practitioner payroll tax reforms will help to ease cost of living pressures on women and improve their access to general practitioners.

Health and women’s workforce participation are strongly linked. As a female dominated industry, women comprise 76.2 per cent of the health care and social assistance workforce.⁶⁰ Increased investment in health care can therefore create additional employment opportunities, particularly for women.⁶¹ The health care and social assistance industry recorded the strongest growth of any industry between 2000 and 2020, with this trend expected to continue.⁶²

The NSW Government is committed to strengthening our health workforce and improving women’s experiences within our health care system.

The existing Women’s Health Centre Program is delivering enhanced health care and wellbeing services to women across the State. This program has delivered 19 Women’s Health Centres across both metropolitan and regional NSW, including in Western Sydney, South Coast, North Coast and the Central West. The Women’s Health Centre Program provides face-to-face support to an average of 50,000 women across NSW each year, with women from low income and other priority backgrounds, including women who have experienced domestic violence, making up the majority of clients.

Existing work continues to expand services for women experiencing severe and/or complex menopause symptoms across NSW. These services will provide a pathway for women experiencing severe or complex symptoms of menopause to access menopause care through a statewide network with four clusters. Each cluster will have a medically led hub with referral sites. These include expansion of two existing sites at the Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick and the Royal North Shore Hospital in St Leonards, and two new sites in Campbelltown and Wallsend. Referral sites and hubs will be operational by mid-2024.