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Advocacy and media
Access, funding and policy
Much of what limits gastroenterology care in Australia comes down to access: how long someone waits for a colonoscopy, whether a therapy is listed on the PBS and whether a fast-growing population has a service at all.
Treatments that are funded in dozens of other countries remain unavailable in Australia because of the way we price and evaluate innovative medicines. Patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis wait years as a result.
A/Prof Viraj Kariyawasam
Focus
Current areas
- Medicines accessReform of Australia's evaluation and pricing pathway for innovative medicines, which leaves patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis without therapies routinely funded overseas.
- Endoscopy accessColonoscopy urgency categorisation and wait times in NSW, and open-access endoscopy models that shorten the path from a positive screening test to a procedure.
- Bowel cancerRising incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer and what it means for screening ages and GP referral thresholds.
- Workforce and fundingMedicare underfunding of specialist care, the practical effect of fee-capping proposals and public hospital practice conditions.
A/Prof Kariyawasam works on these issues through the AMA (NSW) Council and its Hospital Practice Committee, the Agency for Clinical Innovation, IBD Sydney and the professional societies, and comments publicly where it is useful.
For journalists: enquiries go through the rooms on the contact page, and shorter comment is posted on LinkedIn.
Published commentary
Opinion pieces written under his own name. Both deal with the same question: what the gap between the Medicare rebate and the cost of providing care does to patients, and why capping what doctors charge does not close it.
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We are part of the answer, not the problem
Written for a medical readership during the debate on capping what specialists charge. It sets out what a cap would mean in practice for the staff a clinic can keep and the time a consultation can run, and argues against a policy argument that sets patients against the doctors treating them.
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Comment: Don't create another divide in healthcare
Written as an AMA (NSW) councillor on the same proposals. The argument is that the Medicare rebate has not moved with the cost of providing care, so capping the fee treats the symptom and leaves the cause where it is.
Coverage of this work
Reporting where he was one of the specialists asked about access to treatment, as distinct from the pieces above, which he wrote.
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After 17 years of pain: access to newer Crohn's disease therapies
A report by Briana Domjen on a Sydney man who has lived with Crohn's disease since he was nine and now faces the cost of a therapy that is not subsidised here. A/Prof Kariyawasam was one of the specialists asked about access to newer treatments and about how much of this disease goes unseen. Published in print on 23 May 2026 and not available online.
Behind the scenes these people have a very debilitating condition the outside world doesn't even see or understand.
Media and speaking
He is available for comment on inflammatory bowel disease, bowel cancer and screening, endoscopy access and medicines policy, and speaks regularly at clinical meetings and GP education events. Enquiries through the rooms, marked for his attention.
Make an appointment
Appointments are booked through the rooms directly. Have your GP referral ready when you call or ask your GP to send it ahead. Urgent inflammatory bowel disease, rectal bleeding and positive bowel screening referrals are prioritised.
Norwest & Rouse Hill (02) 8530 1800 Pennant Hills (02) 9875 2311 Macquarie Park (02) 9812 3880