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COAG reforms may compromise patient care
6 June 2011
The health system should be coordinated as close to the patient as possible, AMA Victoria President Dr Harry Hemley said today.
Dr Hemley made his comments prior to tomorrow’s meeting between Minister Roxon and the State Health Ministers to discuss the National Health Reform Agreement.
“The Commonwealth is seeking to usurp the role of the states as health system managers,” said Dr Hemley. “Health care should be managed by those closest to the patient. Just as doctors should manage patient care, states should manage health systems.”
“The further away bureaucrats and management are from the patient the less likely they are to act in the patient’s best interests.
“The National Health Performance Authority in its proposed form will erode Victoria’s role as the health system manager,” said Dr Hemley.
In its proposed form the National Health Performance Authority (‘NHPA’) will be able to contact hospitals directly and publicly name hospitals that don’t meet performance targets.
“The NHPA will add another layer of management to an already complex system. This will confuse who is actually in charge of Victorian hospitals. Patient care could easily be compromised due to buck passing and a lack of accountability,” said Dr Hemley.
“AMA Victoria supports a transparent health system and we would like to see nationally consistent and timely data collection to facilitate comparisons and evaluation. However, patients do not need an unnecessary duplication of bureaucracy to achieve this.
“The Victorian Government already collects extensive data about our hospitals,” said Dr Hemley. “The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and COAG Reform Council already release national reports on the hospital system. The NHPA has no additional role to play in data collection.”
Last week the Victorian Government released the first of its new quarterly hospital reports, the Victorian Health Services Performance Report. The AIHW released its annual Australian hospital statistics report earlier this year.
The Premier today announced that that the Commonwealth may move to amalgamate some single campus and statewide hospital boards in Victoria.
“Where individual hospitals are large enough to operate efficiently and provide a range of hospital services they should not be forced to amalgamate nor should our rural communities lose valued services,” said Dr Hemley.
“The COAG agreement negotiated in February said that hospitals will be permitted to continue as stand-alone providers where appropriate.
“Allowing some single campus hospitals to continue allows hospital management to be more accountable and responsive to local needs,” said Dr Hemley.
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