Published in The Age on Monday, August 13, 2007

Paul McMurrick is looking for a solution to the issue of the underfunding of the public health system and the taxpayer funding of the “private” taxpayer-supported system (Letters 10/8).

It’s so simple. Remove taxpayer support for the private system, starting off with removing it from the private health insurance rebate. Spend the savings in the public system. That way, the public system could gradually take most of the “good” things Cabrini Medical Centre and other publicly funded private hospitals have started to do, and which the public system used to do before. That way the credit card would not determine access to care.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President Doctors Reform Society

Published in SMH on Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Medical devices are like drugs, they save lives. They also make large profits for their manufacturers. This is big business, and shareholders require profits. Marketing is crucial. Health outcomes are important but are definitely not foremost in the minds of those who control these businesses. We doctors interact with them at great peril, because they are masters of marketing, having sustained huge profits for decades through their skills.

We doctors are susceptible to marketing pressures despite claims by some doctors of a god-like capacity to remain unaffected. Whilst such companies can wine and dine us, take us on overseas trips to conferences at 5 star venues, and generally attempt to woo us in perfectly legitimate ways, there is a problem. Codes of conduct guidelines and self regulation are no match for the power of the marketer.
We need to keep these businesses at arms length, and for that to happen we need a combination of funding to fill the holes in education, training, and research which these businesses currently fill, and regulation to control our interactions with them.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Age on Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Our emergency departments are struggling to attract and retain staff. Specialists are leaving the public system for the private system. There are four main reasons. Firstly, there is underfunding of the States from the Federal Government. Secondly, there are patients in hospitals who should be in Aged Care facilities. Thirdly, there are patients requiring admission to hospital because they haven’t received adequate care in the community. Fourthly, 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. All of these are Federal Government responsibilities. Could the result be just what it has planned since 1996, the Americanisation or privatization of our health system? In emergencies most of us rely on public hospitals, irrespective of our capacity to afford private health. This is perilous policy for all.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in SMH on Monday, March 17, 2008

When financial rewards are given to large organisations such as hospitals for achieving performance targets that can’t be met, because the hospitals don’t have the resources, we should not be surprised that “gaming” occurs. Falsification of records, invention of virtual wards in order to get patients out of the real ward, and any other means of achieving those targets are likely to be used by bureaucrats who need every resource available.

It is wrong, but it happens everywhere. Audits may diminish such behaviour, but they do not address the real problem: unrealistic performance measures and inadequate resources.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in SMH on Sunday, March 23, 2008

When financial rewards are given to large organisations such as hospitals for achieving performance targets that can’t be met, because the hospitals don’t have the resources, we should not be surprised that “gaming” occurs. Falsification of records, invention of virtual wards in order to get patients out of the real ward, and any other means of achieving those targets are likely to be used by bureaucrats who need every resource available.
It is wrong, but it happens everywhere. Audits may diminish such behaviour, but they do not address the real problem: unrealistic performance measures and inadequate resources

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in Herald Sun on Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Editor

Whatever happened to patients? They are faced with increasing out of pocket costs if they are fortunate enough to find a doctor, Then they have to negotiate a maze of systems to get tests, allied health , specialist assessment and surgery if needed, all funded in different ways, all charging differently. These are the problems which the new health deal ignores or to which minimal attention is given. A few bandaids are suggested like better after hours service. In hours service for the most needy in our community is unchanged.

The new funding arrangement for hospitals is a political deal which will not deliver any noticeable benefit to patients. The Commonwealth has refused to return to a real50/50 funding split with the States. Its tough performance markers are a joke with waiting times to just get on waiting lists ignored. It continues to support the growth of private hospitals with yearly increases but tells public hospitals they will have to wait for 3 years before there are extra funds for the majority of Australians who depend on public hospitals.

This is a political fix with some small incremental benefits for patients. It is not reform. The most needy will continue to receive the least care.

Dr Tim Woodruff
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

31 Davison St
Richmond
3121

PH 0401042619

Published in The Age on Monday, June 6, 2011

If Minister Roxon really does claim that the new hospital watchdog will not encourage manipulation she must be living in another world. Hospitals struggle to perform because they are expected to the impossible with inadequate resources. How do they get surgery done when the specialists are working next door in the taxpayer funded private hospital? How do they fit patients into beds when the beds are taken by patients waiting for aged care places? How do they stop patients coming to Emergency requiring admission for problems which could and should have been treated in the community? How do they manage a budget which is missing the fair and historical 50/50 Federal/State funding split? They manipulate data to avoid financial punishment and a worsening of their position. The struggle to perform is related mainly to Federal Government policy and we are still awaiting the Federal reforms to address the issues raised above.

Tim Woodruff

President

Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Australian on Thursday, July 7, 2011

Setting targets without providing adequate resources is not health reform. In fact, it promotes worse health care as clinicians and bureaucrats waste valuable time working out how to pretend to meet unachievable targets whilst leaving the real needs of patients unattended.

Whilst it makes a big play of reducing inefficiencies and inequities in the private health insurance rebate and the Medicare Safety net, the Federal Government is largely ignoring the fact that more resources and new structures are needed to reform the system so that all patients can afford to get the care they need and deserve

Tim Woodruff
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

31 Davison St
Richmond
3121

PH 0401042619

Published in The Australian on Monday, January 9, 2012

Whilst concerns about the effectiveness of the Social Inclusion Unit are valid (Editorial 7/1), the assertion that health, housing, education, and community services are programs that are better performed by the private sector and through the generosity of volunteers seems to be at odds with the facts. Most Australians who need hospital care or an education can’t get it from the private system or from volunteers. Many also depend on government to access affordable housing and community services because the private sector isn’t capable or interested in the most difficult and disadvantaged and there are insufficient volunteers to address their needs.

Tim Woodruff
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Australian on Thursday, January 12, 2012

It would be great if more people could see through the bulldust at 20 paces (Rough patch in third way Opinion 11/1). Whilst there have been reforms aimed at increasing social inclusion from the current Federal Government, such reforms are at the periphery and are fighting against socially exclusive structures. Any government with a genuine commitment to social inclusion would not bother with a social inclusion portfolio whilst continuing to support two tiered health and education systems and a tax and benefits system which has led to an increase in income inequality over the last decade.

Tim Woodruff
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

31 Davison St
Richmond
3121

PH 0401042619