media releases

“The huge political circus about power and dollars is at great risk of losing the plot” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “Whatever happened to our patients and their constant battles with just finding a doctor to see, or being able to afford the care they need, be it ordinary GP services, mental health, dental care, disability services, allied health services. Whatever happened to concern about their journey through multiple un-co-ordinated parts of the health system to get the care they require and the huge delays in accessing the same health care their richer fellow citizens can easily access.”

“We don’t have a fair health system,” said Dr Woodruff. “The least needy get the most care and the most needy get the least care and the Prime Minister, the Premiers, and the various oppositions are ignoring that fact in favour of playing politics with power and money. Nothing substantial has been suggested to address access problems to non hospital care in a systematic way. Tinkering at the edges, as has been happening for decades, is the best on offer. Nothing substantial has been suggested to address the problems of public hospitals being too full. Aged care funding suggestions remain woefully inadequate.”

“We don’t have an efficient system,” said Dr Woodruff, “and the suggestions on the table to date are about possible marginal improvements in efficiency.”

“We don’t even have a health system. Instead we have multiple poorly connected pieces,” said Dr Woodruff. “For our patients there is the public hospital system, the publicly subsidised private hospital system, the GP system, the community care system, the publicly funded private allied health system, the mental health system, the publicly funded private dental system, the public dental system, the Aged Care system, and a myriad of other poorly connected pieces of a nightmare for our patients to negotiate.”

“And the proposals are about power and money, combined with ‘sweeteners’, extra money to partially address gaping holes in the system, suddenly appearing for political reasons rather than because they are good policy,” said Dr Woodruff, “but nothing to reconstruct the system so that it works for patients. Where are our leaders? Where is the bold reform?”

“Let’s have a single pool of funds, distributed according to need, to regional entities and or States which are accountable to their local communities to deliver the care they need, with a national set of standards against which performance can be measured so that we all know who is providing high quality integrated health care to all Australians, whatever their income, wherever they are. Control of the distribution of funds should not be at the whim of politicians at whatever level.”
“Then we would have bold reform, worthy of leaders interested in patients rather than power, in people rather than money.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Peter Daovren
President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

Sunday, 11 April 2010

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