Capped price medicines and additional funding for research are among the few highlights for nephrology in this year’s Federal Budget, which has been labelled disappointing by doctor groups.

Major health announcements were few and far between, with inflation reduction and cost of living measures the main focus in Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ third Budget on Tuesday night.

Nevertheless, some significant changes were made among the $8.5 billion in new money that the federal government says it is investing into health next financial year.

For renal physicians, the biggest developments are tied in with broader health initiatives, with another $1.4 billion committed to medical research through the Medical Research Future Fund, including an additional $411.6 million for low survival cancers and reducing health inequities.

To be called the Low Survival Cancers Mission, the project is intended to focus on cancers with five-year survival rates below 50%, such as lung, pancreatic, and liver cancers, according to the government.

There will also be cash for the development of the National One Stop Shop for Clinical Trials and Human Research and related support for trans-Tasman clinical registries until this function is included in the One Stop Shop.

This body will “streamline work to manage clinical trials and human research, including management of cross-jurisdictional ethics approvals”, according to the government.

But while this funding was welcomed, the Budget has received a muted reception from doctors’ groups.

AMA president Professor Steve Robson said he was disappointed by the lack of heath reform and inaction on issues such as preventative health and surgery waitlists.

“Just weeks ago, we released a report showing planned surgery wait times in our public hospitals are now the longest on record, and emergency departments remain strangled by access block,” he said.

“The additional investment through the next hospital agreement is very welcome but we have hundreds and thousands of Australians waiting in pain for planned surgery. Unless the Commonwealth and the state and territories come up with a funded plan to address this, patients will continue to suffer, with their conditions getting worse, their quality of life significantly impacted and the long-term cost to the health system being higher.”

Grabbing most of the headlines was a cap on the maximum cost of PBS medicines, which will stay at $31.60 for two years. Pensioners and concession card holders will pay no more than $7.70 per dispensed medication  for five years.

Beyond this, the government is committing to fund an additional 29 urgent care clinics, adding to the 58 already opened, and has already pledged to spend almost $600 million on a national digital mental health service.

But these were unlikely to address the major structural challenges facing the health system, Professor Robson noted.

“More urgent care clinics are not a long-term strategic solution, and the government keeps looking to fund more of them without proper evaluation of their impact,” he said.

“What we need is reform that enables general practice to deliver the primary care that our patients need, not piecemeal announcements and changes that further fragment the system.”