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Reports today that cancer doctors say Labor’s cancer plan won’t work to eliminate costs of treatment reveal both the problem of the very high fees charged by some specialists and the lack of thinking behind Labor’s policy, said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

Some private cancer doctors are saying they will not guarantee bulk billing of cancer patients whatever the rebate, and others are saying that they value their own autonomy and independence which is code for saying patients’ financial distress plays second fiddle to their desire to charge what they like. This is the sad dark side of this issue.

How is it that doctors see their own income as more important than their patients’ well being? This is not patient centred care, it is doctor centred care. It’s time for the public and politicians to call such behaviour out.

Labor could put all this money into public cancer services and create even better competition for such private doctors so that over time the only patients who want to go private are those who are very rich. It hasn’t. It has chosen to improve the private system without knowing how to control doctors’ fees.

Dr Tim Woodruff                 President

Dr Con Cost                        Vice President