Petition: Oppose the outsourcing of the ANU Medical Centre
The ANU has announced plans to “go to market” on the contract to run the ANU Medical
Centre. This comes less than 12 months after the university was forced to reverse its initial privatisation of the clinic when the organisation it was outsourced to in 2017, the National Health Co-op, went bankrupt.
Healthcare should not be for profit. Rather than allowing a private company to run the Medical Centre, the ANU must continue to provide an in-house bulk-billing clinic for students and staff. This means being prepared to subsidise the cost of this service in order to guarantee access to healthcare on campus.
It’s possible for the ANU to do this. The university recorded a $232.4 million surplus in 2021. We have to fight for the ANU to put student and staff health before the university administration’s bottom line. The fight against privatisation is also a fight against possible pay cuts and job losses for the staff working at the clinic.
The ANU has also announced that the clinic will no longer be bulk-billed for staff. The ANU has decided to charge staff at the high end of market prices - $90 for a standard 15 minute consultation, $150 for a 30 minute appointment, and $250 for a prolonged consultation. This comes at a time when bulk-billing is in crisis around the country. Nowhere is this more pressing than Canberra, which has the lowest bulk-billing rate in the country.
The Education Action Network has initiated a petition against the outsourcing of the clinic, which can be found below.
Sign the petition >