By Anthony Barich
National Reporter
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd’s announcement to use private hospital beds to treat people waiting lengthy times for public elective surgery will eventually help improve the performance of the nation’s hospital system, Catholic Health Australia (CHA) said.
CHA, representing public and private hospitals caring for one in 10 of all people in Australian hospital beds, said the Government’s health reform plan has merit, but the three-year delay in improving hospital performance while reform is bedded down can be avoided.
CHA welcomed the long-term plan to encourage networking of primary, acute and aged care services, but has urged the Government to put in place interim measures to improve hospital performance during the three-year-plus period it may take to implement reform plans.
As Rudd unveiled plans to strip the states of 30 per cent of their GST receipts to fund a federal takeover of State-run public hospitals, CHA chief executive Martin Laverty said the Health Reform plan offers potential for improving hospital services, particularly by using available private hospital beds to treat patients waiting for public elective surgery.
“But the proposal is yet to be agreed by State and Territory Governments. It may even need a referendum to be implemented,” he said, backing Rudd’s threat of a referendum if states do not hand over 30 per cent of their GST revenues to bankroll his plan.
In a 3 March letter to CHA members, Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the plan involves creating a single national network of public hospitals, instead of eight separate systems, to be funded nationally, ensuring “local experts with local expertise are making the important decisions for our local hospitals”.
People waiting on lengthy queues for public elective surgery will see no immediate improvement as a result of Rudd’s health reform blueprint, Mr Laverty said, adding that people waiting for surgery today may not see any on the ground changes for up to three years.
“The Prime Minister has an opportunity to announce an interim solution to cut hospital waiting times whilst working with State and Territory Governments to get the reforms through,” Mr Laverty said.
“The interim solution should use available private hospital beds to treat patients the public system can’t. Having committed to do this in about three years’ time, why not start doing this now?”
CHA also endorsed per patient funding, under which many of its 75 public and private hospitals already operate.
Per patient funding has been on the table since COAG (Council of Australian Governments) agreed to it in March 2008, he said, yet “not a lot of progress has been made in setting this system up since that time”, and the agreement for Canberra to fund 60 per cent instead of 100 per cent leaves the opportunity for buck passing between governments to continue”.
“There are also checks and balances needed for per patient funding. Big public hospitals that treat many patients can do better than smaller public hospitals with few patients,” he said.
“Quality control measures also need to be linked to each patient payment.”
“It will also be a big task to work out the boundaries of health regions into which patient funding will be directed. This will need a lot of thought, and consultation with often vocal local communities.”
He warned that there is much hard work yet to do and “there are many who will need to be persuaded”.
“Patients don’t need to wait any longer. An interim plan to use available private beds to care for patients waiting for elective surgery would cut hospital waiting times now,” Mr Laverty said.