Big-picture health reform "remains unfinished business", nurses say

Following the Australian Government’s Budget 2026–27, the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) has acknowledged that cost of living relief and housing affordability are federal government priorities, yet said the “support for nurses and nursing cannot be delayed further”.

Pointing to policy proposals in ACN’s Pre-Budget Submission 2026–27, Acting ACN CEO Dr Zach Byfield said these remain priorities. In particular, Byfield highlighted: empowering nurses to turn around falling vaccination rates, reducing aged care hospital admissions, expanding hospital capacity through advanced nursing roles, and expanding medicine access — by scaling registered nurse prescribing.

“Big-picture health reform, especially for nurses and nursing, remains unfinished business,” Byfield said. “We urge the government to release the much-anticipated National Nursing Workforce Strategy, implement the recommendations of the Cormack Review into scope of practice, and enable and fund more nurse-led models of care.

“Funding the National Nursing Workforce Strategy is vital to ensure Australia has the nursing workforce in the right numbers in the right places to care for our growing and aging population — and to take pressure off an already stressed workforce.

“Nurses on hospital wards are under incredible strain from surging rates of chronic disease — type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease — which are driving more complex and more frequent acute hospital presentations.

“The way to relieve that pressure is to boost the capability of nurses in primary care to manage chronic disease before it becomes a hospitalisation.”

Byfield did also point to health and nursing positives in the Budget 2026–27. “We welcome expanded access to MBS items for nurse practitioners and midwives,” Byfield said. “ACN also welcomes the government’s decision to fully subsidise personal care services — including showering, dressing and continence care — in aged care plans, reversing a co-contribution model that had drawn widespread concern from older Australians and the workforce caring for them.

“Nurses are already at the heart of aged care but must be supported to continue to provide the highest-quality care for older and frail Australians and build rewarding career pathways in the sector.

“ACN supports the funding boost for Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs), and the move to make them permanent.

“There is significant potential for nurses to improve access for people to get the care they need when they need it in Urgent Care Clinics.

“UCCs offer opportunities for nurses to take on more leadership roles with genuine multidisciplinary teams, especially in communities with few or no GPs and where UCCs are struggling to stay open the recommended hours due to staffing pressures.

“There is clear evidence that nurse-led care is high quality, easily accessible, more affordable, and keeps people out of hospital and other more costly care. The nurse-led walk-in centres in the ACT are a prime example.

“We need new funding models that enable nurses to work independently to their full scope of practice in multiple settings, especially primary care and aged care.”

You can read ACN’s Pre-Budget Submission 2026–27 at www.acn.edu.au/advocacy-policy/2026-2027-pre-budget-submission.

Image credit: iStock.com/Hiraman