media releases

The Doctors Reform Society today released a scorecard assessing the health policies of the parties.

“We have a unique situation at the upcoming election”, said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society, “in that there is no possibility of the Labor Party gaining an outright majority in the Senate. Thus even should they win the elections they will be powerless to pass legislation through the Senate to fix our ailing Public Hospitals and health system.”

“Our world class health system is in danger,” said Dr Woodruff. “A 50% increase in out of pocket costs over the last 10 years, combined with lack of access to quality health care for disadvantaged and geographically remote patients is leading to increasing disparities in health outcomes between rich and poor.”

“Our health workforce is at crisis point,” said Dr Woodruff. “The nursing workforce is aging and working conditions and career pathways are deterring many dedicated people from continuing their life saving work. Our medical workforce is inadequate and not distributed to areas of need. Our hospitals are struggling to cope with the increased demands”.

“Our health system is fragmented, inefficient, and hospital and disease focused. We need vision and national planning to address the health issues of the 21st century”.

“This assessment reveals some promising and some very worrying results,” said Dr Woodruff. “It is the minor parties that are demonstrating a much better vision for policies to bring equity, efficiency, universality, and quality to our health system. The Coalition is struggling to score many points on any of the key health issues confronting our politicians and our patients.”
“We note that the Labor Party has scored better than the Coalition on all issues we regard as priorities,” said Dr Woodruff “and we encourage voters concerned about our health system to take this into account when considering their vote for the House of Representatives”.

“The role of the senate, however, will be crucial in achieving the best health system outcomes over the next three years whichever party gains government” said Dr Woodruff. “As the Labor Party cannot possibly win balance of power in the Senate in this election, the choice is between the minor parties and the Coalition. Due to the encouraging scores of the Democrats and Greens, it will be imperative for progressive policies that the minor parties gain this role”

11 Issues, scored on 0-5 scale, maximum points 55.

0 – Policy or statements which conflict directly with addressing issue.
1 – No policy
2 – Vague statements which may address issue or significant mixture of policies which in sum are directed to addressing issue
3 – Appropriate policy suggestions with little detail, or moderately detailed policy suggestions partially addressing issue
4 – Policy suggestions with moderate detail or excellent policy suggestions addressing issue partially
5 – Excellent well thought out policy to address issue

	Coalition	Labor	Greens	Democrats
Universality	0	2	4	5
Equity of access	0	2	4	4
Equity of outcomes	0	2	4	5
Citizen engagement	0	2	4	5
National Health Policy Formation	0	3	5	5
Integrated primary health care focus	2	4	4	4
Health funds pooling and distribution	0	1	4	5
Indigenous health	2	3	5	5
Workforce    numbers/quality    distribution	2	3	4	4
Dental health	2	3	4	5
Mental health	2	3	4	5
Total	10	28	46	52

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

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