Media Releases

A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare today reveals that the Federal Government’s percentage contribution to public hospital funding, has fallen from 45% of the total Federal and State expenditure, to 41% in the last 4 years,” said Dr Tim Woodruff.

This is further evidence of the Federal Government’s abdication of its responsibility to support public hospitals throughout Australia,” said Dr Woodruff.

Public Hospitals cannot provide adequate emergency services or other services if the federal government starves them of funds.
“The states have doubled their spending in response to increased demand”, said Dr Woodruff.

“The Howard government has not matched the States and has failed to respond adequately to that increased demand”.

Its time for the Federal Government to stop blaming and start paying!

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“The announcement by the Health Minister that the Federal Government would leave running of public hospitals to local boards competing for scarce resources with adjacent hospitals will be a disaster,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“This is an abdication of national health planning,” said Dr Woodruff, “just at a time when such planning is essential to co-ordinate the complex technological medicine which hospitals now practice. It’s a return to a failed model of the past rather than a vision for the future”

“Every hospital board would like an intensive care unit and emergency department in their hospital,” said Dr Woodruff. “But quality care happens when there is enough work to give the unit the experience. With scarce resources and national workforce shortages, this is a recipe for second rate care.”

“In addition, this will be yet another layer of bureaucracy in running the ‘dog’s breakfast’ health system over which Minister Abbott presides. Inefficiencies in our health system are currently estimated to cost anything from $2 to $6 billion per year and this will only add to that figure.”

“It’s time for the Federal Government to acknowledge its responsibilities for the declining services in our public hospitals and put forward resources and a viable long term plan to address the issues.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]

Our emergency departments are struggling to attract and retain staff. Specialists, interns and nurses and allied staff are leaving the public system for the private system, said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society

There are four main reasons. Firstly, there is underfunding of the States from the Federal Government. Secondly, the promotion of private health and hospital care through the Private Health Insurance rebate makes private practice more attractive to public hospital doctors and other health professions, contributing to public hospital workforce shortages. Also there are the perennial problems of patients in hospitals who should be in Aged Care facilities and patients requiring admission to hospital because they haven’t received adequate care in the private “rapid revolving door” fee for service GP system.

All of these problems are Federal Government responsibilities, said Dr Woodruff. Could the result be just what it has planned since 1996, the Americanisation or privatization of our health system?

In emergencies – heart attack, major MVA or miscarriage – all of us will rely on public hospitals and public accident and emergency rooms, irrespective of our capacity to afford private health. Privatisation of the health system is perilous policy for all.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“The Federal Opposition’s decision not to axe the Medicare Safety Net sadly tells us that their interest in ‘a fair go’ for our most desperate patients and their interest in being economically responsible with our taxes is quite superficial,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “The Safety Net hardly touches the lives of patients in our poorest electorates.”

“Whilst Labor talks about the unfairness of our health system, with many patients not able to see a doctor because of waiting lists, costs, or simply because there is no doctor, they remain scared or reluctant to address the major structural issues of our health system which contribute to our patients’ struggles,” said Dr Woodruff. “Indeed to date the only policies to address these issues have been the Superclinics which will have difficulties getting staff because the Medicare rebate system is fatally flawed, as it discourages doctors from working in poorer areas.”

“In addition, Labor’s continued commitment to the Private Health Insurance Rebate also demonstrates their commitment to economically inefficient policies which encourage doctors to work in the much more expensive private hospital sector rather than in the understaffed public hospitals,” said Dr Woodruff. “This leaves our public patients suffering on waiting lists.”

“The only hope for our patients”, said Dr Woodruff, “would be that Labor’s proposed Health and Hospitals Reform Commission might recognise these grossly inequitable and inefficient policies for what they are and recommend they be scrapped.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“The proposal by the Federal Opposition to provide infra structure funding for purpose built super clinics is welcome,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “It will help similar initiatives by State Governments to deliver services.”

“It is limited however in several ways,” cautioned Dr Woodruff. “Staffing of such centres, set up in areas which are currently underserviced, will continue to be a major problem unless the fee for service funding of doctors, psychologists, and other allied health workers is changed”, said Dr Woodruff. “Money goes to doctors, not to areas of need, and until real reform of that funding is addressed, our patients in need will continue to miss out.”

“Furthermore, unless the ongoing funding for such clinics is integrated and ensured, patients simply wont see any benefits,” aid Dr Woodruff, “and the ongoing shortage of doctors and nurses will also limit the benefits of this funding.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“The announcement today by the Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, to co-operate with
states and territories to improve public hospitals is long overdue and very welcome,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President of Doctors Reform Society.

A National Health Reform Commission to set standards and dispense funds based on
need, is an exciting development which can only benefit our desperate patients
throughout Australia said Dr Woodruff.

“The injection of extra funding will set the scene for major improvements, however the savings of billions by improved efficiencies, will also mean a further injection of
funding.” said Dr Woodruff.

“We can only wonder why the current Federal government has not put forward such a
promising proposal to date.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“Reports today of the disastrous shortage of GPs even in Sydney should be a wakeup call to the Federal Government,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “Increasingly they have to wait weeks just to see a GP and this situation is reflected in other cities as well as GPs in many suburbs close their books because they just can’t cope.”

“We have a national shortage of GPs because of the Federal Government’s cost saving policies of the 1990s,” said Dr Woodruff. “They didn’t fund enough medical school places, and even their attempt to correct that bad policy will not fill the gap in the future”.

“In addition, their support for general practice is woeful, half hearted, muddled, full of red tape, and designed by default to decrease the attractiveness of general practice,” said Dr Woodruff.

“Where is the support for nurses in city general practices? Where is the financial support for the very capital intensive infrastructure for general practices in an age where integrated multidisciplinary health care centres are the way of the future?,” asked Dr Woodruff. “The Federal Government is leaving it to private enterprise to finance corporate controlled centres whose interest in patients is inevitably secondary to their profits.”

“Where is the Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, when patients need him?”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“A Federal Government takeover of public hospitals should be a terrifying prospect for all Australians,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “This Federal Government is currently responsible for the highest on record out of pocket costs to see GPs and specialists. If it controls public hospitals, its next step will be to introduce means tested access and copayments to public hospitals to force as many as possible into the more expensive and less efficient private hospital system”

“Any guarantee by the Federal Government that there will be unrestricted access to public hospitals it controls should be taken with a grain of salt,” said Dr Woodruff. “It has never hidden its belief that, in the words of the Health Minister Tony Abbott ‘if a doctor charges you, you should expect to pay’, so one has to ask why their attitude to hospital care would be any different in the long term”

“The Federal Government’s record on increasing financial barriers to accessing health care is an appalling indictment of their lack of concern for those Australians who have to balance their weekly budgets and decide whether health care is affordable from day to day,” said Dr Woodruff.

“Evidence from repeated surveys of Australians consistently show that cost of care stops people seeing the doctor, taking the recommended drugs, or having the recommended tests. If the Howard Government runs hospitals it will soon add financial barriers to accessing hospital care to its list of dubious achievements.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]