Public health system faces growing financial stress, Australian Medical Association report card finds
By political reporter Stephen Dziedzic
ABC News

Public hospitals are facing a budget crisis as federal and state governments bicker over funding, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has warned.   :(
Key points:

    Report card finds emergency department waiting times have worsened
    Number of hospital beds increased slightly but does not meet demand
    Elective surgery waiting times improved marginally
    AMA wants any change in tax to benefit health system

The Association's annual public hospital report card found emergency department waiting times had worsened slightly, with 68 per cent of "urgent" emergency department patients seen within half an hour.

Of all emergency department visits, 73 per cent were completed in four hours or less, well short of the 90 per cent target for 2015 set by state governments.

The number of hospital beds increased slightly, but not enough to meet growing demand.

Elective surgery waiting times improved marginally, with the average patient now waiting 35 days for surgery.

But that figure has deteriorated since 2001, when patients waited only 27 days on average.

AMA president Brian Owler said most state governments had made a concerted push to reduce hospital waiting times, but the "disappointing" report card showed they were struggling to cope with growing demand.   :(

Professor Owler attacked the Federal Government's efforts to force the states to bear a larger share of health costs by fixing its own funding increases to indexation and population growth.

"The states are facing a hospital funding black hole from next year, when the growth in federal funding slows," he said.

"In a struggling public hospital system that's failing to meet its performance targets that sort of slowdown in funding growth will mean that they will be under further strain, and I think we'll start to see further clinical services being cut."

He also said the Federal Government should not cut income taxes while the public hospital system remained underfunded.

Treasurer Scott Morrison is working on a tax white paper canvassing possible changes to personal and corporate tax arrangements.

The Government has not revealed its final plans, but Professor Owler said Mr Morrison's suggestion that cutting income tax could boost jobs and growth was concerning.

"What we want to see is any revenue that is raised is kept in health, and we've seen some worrying comments from the new Treasurer Scott Morrison saying that he wants to fund personal income tax cuts — now that is not what that discussion was about," Professor Owler said.

"It's crucial that if we get any extra revenue then it go into health, because that's what it was promised for, and that is where it's needed."

What did everybody think would happen when Libs ripped 80 billion out and then still managed to double budget deficit, in 6 months , with no GFC  :D

Raise the GST and get it over with.

I had the displeasure of going to our local hospital...where it has now been extended... ::)...

it took forever to walk from one area to another to get an xray....in fact the length of the walk was disgusting...how they expect sick people and staff to manage that I will never know...

staff would have to walk a few miles in a day...

the waste at these places is enormous...they seem to me to be hives of inefficiencies..

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:24am:

I had the displeasure of going to our local hospital...where it has now been extended... ::)... it took forever to walk from one area to another to get an xray....in fact the length of the walk was disgusting...how they expect sick people and staff to manage that I will never know... staff would have to walk a few miles in a day... the waste at these places is enormous...they seem to me to be hives of inefficiencies..

Well they dont want encourage people to use it so they make you wait and wait, pay though and its a different story , care magically appears   :-/

Public health spending is a bottomless pit.
If you really want to improve public health, you must work on the one thing you can control.....yourself

miketrees wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:13am:

Raise the GST and get it over with.

the thing is the cost of running this goes up every day.... it stands to reason....

why do we have DOUBLE everything..

Fed health

State health...

all with little emperors

and  for the most part all inefficient......

all running over cost all running behind with services...

the health system is like a giant eating machine with 8 heads to feed.......completely out of control.

its bizarre...

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:24am:

the waste at these places is enormous...they seem to me to be hives of inefficiencies..

What was the waste you are referring to?

So you dont like big hospitals with long corridors.
Its time wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:28am:

it took forever to walk from one area to another to get an xray....in fact the length of the walk was disgusting..

So you dont like big hospitals with long corridors.

aquascoot wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:32am:

Public health spending is a bottomless pit. If you really want to improve public health, you must work on the one thing you can control.....yourself

Unfortunately I think the cost continually going up relates to research developments in treatment methods, modern machinery etc, its a bit unavoidable in a modern society.

aquascoot wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:32am:

Public health spending is a bottomless pit. If you really want to improve public health, you must work on the one thing you can control.....yourself

hilarious aqua.....isnt it what we PAY people to take care of?..

if I need after hours care I PAY FOR IT>> its called CALMS...

Abbott wanted to charge  a small fee....for this so called FREE service provided by our hospital system..

and they went berserk....

so what you get is what you deserve....every drunk and dopey uses the FREE system... to their full advantage...

our aboriginal friends pay ZERO...for any of it...they dont even pay the $6.20 prescription fee pensioners pay...

are we doing them any favours???????........are they taking better care of themselves..?????
  hardly.

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:35am:

cods wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:24am: the waste at these places is enormous...they seem to me to be hives of inefficiencies.. What was the waste you are referring to? TIME ..... So you dont like big hospitals with long corridors. Its time wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:28am: it took forever to walk from one area to another to get an xray....in fact the length of the walk was disgusting.. So you dont like big hospitals with long corridors.

so you think staff... read nurses... spending half their day getting from one service to another is efficient?..

have you been to Woden of late????

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:42am:

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:35am: cods wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:24am: the waste at these places is enormous...they seem to me to be hives of inefficiencies.. What was the waste you are referring to? TIME ..... So you dont like big hospitals with long corridors. Its time wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:28am: it took forever to walk from one area to another to get an xray....in fact the length of the walk was disgusting.. So you dont like big hospitals with long corridors. so you think staff... read nurses... spending half their day getting from one service to another is efficient?.. have you been to Woden of late????

Yes I have, and know what you mean.

The trouble is it was built as a low rise hospital to start with (I think) and grew topsy turvey over the years. The emergency area end is multi story but a large amount is only  a couple of floors high and a very long building. It probably needs replacing but as it is the main ACT hospital that would cost a fortune

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:40am:

aquascoot wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:32am: Public health spending is a bottomless pit. If you really want to improve public health, you must work on the one thing you can control.....yourself hilarious aqua.....isnt it what we PAY people to take care of?.. if I need after hours care I PAY FOR IT>> its called CALMS... Abbott wanted to charge  a small fee....for this so called FREE service provided by our hospital system.. and they went berserk.... so what you get is what you deserve....every drunk and dopey uses the FREE system... to their full advantage... our aboriginal friends pay ZERO...for any of it...they dont even pay the $6.20 prescription fee pensioners pay... are we doing them any favours???????........are they taking better care of themselves..?????   hardly.

my version of personal development is not rocket science.
you dont need 100's of scientists and expensive labs trying to find genetic markers and doing endless expensive tests.

1   eat healthy food that comes straight out of the ground
2 get good sleep
3 dont smoke, drink or use drugs
4  walk around the block with your dog, doing walking meditation, smile and chat to everyone you pass and develop a community social spirit and mindfulness.

Total cost =  0

availability to every soul in australia  =  universal.

Why do people keep putting their faith in science to solve problems which science cannot solve.

Obesity and overweight at 70 %
negative neurotic thought, anxiety and depression at 50 %.

how much longer does science want to solve these problems?

when will the high tech, high expense researchers in major hospitals deliver the break thru.

Aquascoot thinks everyone knows how to lose weight and develop a resilient mental health.

Its called personal development and guess what

"its personal"

nothing will change for anyone, costs will continue to rise , cry baby stories will continue to be told til people realise that it will not change for them til THEY CHANGE  :) :) :)

Woden Hospital it sure is a higgledy piggledy place

http://hisa.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/maps/canberra_hospital_map.jpg

Perhaps they should blow it up like they did with the original Royal Canberra Hospital

Around 25 Buildings by the look of it!

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 8:03am:

Woden Hospital it sure is a higgledy piggledy place http://health.act.gov.au/gfx/pubs/1384334919_r0.png Perhaps they should blow it up like they did with the original Royal Canberra Hospital

big hospitals are monuments to politicians ego's .
nothing more.

health (physical and mental) is, for most people, a personal responsibility.

we need hospitals for road trauma, cancer and some diseases.

big hospitals are full of heart disease, diabetes, kidney failure, lung disease and depression.

all of these are , to a very large extent, self inflicted injuries due to bad diet, lack of exercise, smoking and drugs and incorrect lazy thinking patterns .

to say we will just build more hospitals (as politicians seem to say) is nuts.

if we had 1000's of people injured due to bad roads and drink drivers, what is more sensible...build more hosptials to treat them so a pollie can cut a ribbon or attack the problem at the source...build better roads and get the drunks out of cars.

Public health is a monster and it is symbolic of bad and lazy thinking

I guess the big hospitals enable the provision of all the latest equipment and treatment departments including specialists etc, that would be too expensive to duplicate in smaller hospitals

Woden hospital serves as the main specialist hospital for almost all of southern NSW, similarly so does John Hunter (Newcastle) serve the northern part of nSW

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:34am:

miketrees wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:13am: Raise the GST and get it over with. the thing is the cost of running this goes up every day.... it stands to reason.... why do we have DOUBLE everything.. Fed health State health... all with little emperors and  for the most part all inefficient...... all running over cost all running behind with services... the health system is like a giant eating machine with 8 heads to feed.......completely out of control. its bizarre...

While the two largest health unions, namely the AMA and the College of Surgeons continue to exert unfettered control of the medical industry don't expect costs to match productivity in our lifetimes.

aquascoot wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 8:10am:

big hospitals are monuments to politicians ego's . nothing more.

Bullshit in the the Woden hospital case, it evolved from about 1970 onwards eventually becoming the main hospital for around 300000 people, it was overseen by many governments.

Building large hospitals is no different to Organisations like Telstra centralising all its operations in one major centre in Melbourne to create economies of scale.

http://apcmag.com/telstras-massive-nerve-centre-exposed.htm/

The next thing will be outsourcing  of all functions that can be outsourced to overseas countries or private enterprise although as with the public service this doesnt always work that well

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 8:21am:

I guess the big hospitals enable the provision of all the latest equipment and treatment departments including specialists etc, that would be too expensive to duplicate in smaller hospitals Woden hospital serves as the main specialist hospital for almost all of southern NSW, similarly so does John Hunter (Newcastle) serve the northern part of nSW

I am fine with that red... it is meant to make things more efficient..... but from what I see it doesnt.....



of all the depts that need to be EFFICIENT  its the HEALTH DEPT>...and to me they have it all wrong...

we have always had hospitals weve always had people in need of medical attention....how come all of a sudden....its imploding.....

too many chiefs........to many bureaucrats ... too many chooks with no heads....

sounds about right!

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 9:06am:

of all the depts that need to be EFFICIENT  its the HEALTH DEPT>...and to me they have it all wrong... we have always had hospitals weve always had people in need of medical attention....how come all of a sudden....its imploding..... too many chiefs........to many bureaucrats ... too many chooks with no heads....

The same as all the APS bloated, despite every new government cutting numbers, only for them to be replaced initially by hiring consultants (often those that were made redundant) and as time goes on the numbers grow back  with new hires.

From my observations they dont seem to have a real managers instinct of running their areas as if they owned the business and it was their money being spent.

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 9:25am:

cods wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 9:06am: of all the depts that need to be EFFICIENT  its the HEALTH DEPT>...and to me they have it all wrong... we have always had hospitals weve always had people in need of medical attention....how come all of a sudden....its imploding..... too many chiefs........to many bureaucrats ... too many chooks with no heads.... The same as all the APS bloated, despite every new government cutting numbers, only for them to be replaced initially by hiring consultants (often those that were made redundant) and as time goes on the numbers grow back  with new hires. From my observations they dont seem to have a real managers instinct of running their areas as if they owned the business and it was their money being spent.

my daughters neighbour works at the tracking station...engineer...he is turning 50 and is taking a package....next year I believe...I was shocked when I heard that anyway alls well.   he will go back straight away......

we have to realise red we have abnormal amounts of money to cater to all this.. ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)..

the greedy.

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 9:33am:

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 9:25am: cods wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 9:06am: of all the depts that need to be EFFICIENT  its the HEALTH DEPT>...and to me they have it all wrong... we have always had hospitals weve always had people in need of medical attention....how come all of a sudden....its imploding..... too many chiefs........to many bureaucrats ... too many chooks with no heads.... The same as all the APS bloated, despite every new government cutting numbers, only for them to be replaced initially by hiring consultants (often those that were made redundant) and as time goes on the numbers grow back  with new hires. From my observations they dont seem to have a real managers instinct of running their areas as if they owned the business and it was their money being spent. my daughters neighbour works at the tracking station...engineer...he is turning 50 and is taking a package....next year I believe...I was shocked when I heard that anyway alls well.   he will go back straight away...... we have to realise red we have abnormal amounts of money to cater to all this.. ::) ::) ::) ::) ::).. the greedy.

Actually when I took a package in the late 1990's from a large organisation (not APS), as the package was largely non taxed, we werent allowed to be reemployed by that company for 12 months by law!

I have done some casual APS work in HR on and off over the last 15 years and am amazed that that law doesnt seem to apply any more.

Its time wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:00am:

What did everybody think would happen when Libs ripped 80 billion out and then still managed to double budget deficit, in 6 months , with no GFC  :D

The interest on Labor's debt is a good piece of the deficit... :D

Easy fixed anyway.  Go back to if You use the system, then You pay for the system.  Scrap Medicare.  The minority of taxpayers that pay the majority of tax are fed up with paying for freeloaders that just whinge and whine when they should be saying thanks.

Swagman wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 10:31am:

Its time wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:00am: What did everybody think would happen when Libs ripped 80 billion out and then still managed to double budget deficit, in 6 months , with no GFC  :D The interest on Labor's debt is a good piece of the deficit... :D Easy fixed anyway.  Go back to if You use the system, then You pay for the system.  Scrap Medicare.  The minority of taxpayers that pay the majority of tax are fed up with paying for freeloaders that just whinge and whine when they should be saying thanks.

Yes you should be saying thanks instead of bludging on the internet all day!

;D ;D

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 9:25am:

cods wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 9:06am: of all the depts that need to be EFFICIENT  its the HEALTH DEPT>...and to me they have it all wrong... we have always had hospitals weve always had people in need of medical attention....how come all of a sudden....its imploding..... too many chiefs........to many bureaucrats ... too many chooks with no heads.... The same as all the APS bloated, despite every new government cutting numbers, only for them to be replaced initially by hiring consultants (often those that were made redundant) and as time goes on the numbers grow back  with new hires. From my observations they dont seem to have a real managers instinct of running their areas as if they owned the business and it was their money being spent.

I had a uniformed posting to the DMO for 3years.   It was absolutely incredible watching the amount of defence (thereby Taxpayer's money) that the APS staff used on going interstate on one or two day's meetings, plus staying at 5 star hotels with all allowances.  Uniformed defence members within the DMO could only travel for any purpose if military accommodation was available and limited expenses were paid.       I'm glad this Government finally ended this by bringing DMO back under Defence control - we may even be able to afford some better capability now rather than allowing people to increase their Qantas Club status.

Swagman wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 10:31am:

Its time wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:00am: What did everybody think would happen when Libs ripped 80 billion out and then still managed to double budget deficit, in 6 months , with no GFC  :D The interest on Labor's debt is a good piece of the deficit... :D Easy fixed anyway.  Go back to if You use the system, then You pay for the system.  Scrap Medicare.  The minority of taxpayers that pay the majority of tax are fed up with paying for freeloaders that just whinge and whine when they should be saying thanks.

I sort of agree with you in some areas Swag - but wondering what you think of the NSW Government spending millions on public housing?   Surely it is not up to the taxpayer to fund freeloaders there either!

Vic wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 2:35pm:

Swagman wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 10:31am: Its time wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:00am: What did everybody think would happen when Libs ripped 80 billion out and then still managed to double budget deficit, in 6 months , with no GFC  :D The interest on Labor's debt is a good piece of the deficit... :D Easy fixed anyway.  Go back to if You use the system, then You pay for the system.  Scrap Medicare.  The minority of taxpayers that pay the majority of tax are fed up with paying for freeloaders that just whinge and whine when they should be saying thanks. I sort of agree with you in some areas Swag - but wondering what you think of the NSW Government spending millions on public housing?   Surely it is not up to the taxpayer to fund freeloaders there either!

Good point Bigvic, but the downtrodden still pay rent for their publicly funded housing.  It's not a freebie.......and then there's all those construction jobs?

Perhaps we should do what just about every other industry is doing.

Start a new hospital , import contract doctors and nurses from overseas, pay them 9/10ths of bugger all.

Competition see.

(shut up I know the rules, just sayin like)

Or soon we will just fly overseas to cheaper Drs

Swagman wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 10:31am:

Its time wrote on Jan 28th, 2016 at 7:00am: What did everybody think would happen when Libs ripped 80 billion out and then still managed to double budget deficit, in 6 months , with no GFC  :D The interest on Labor's debt is a good piece of the deficit... :D Easy fixed anyway.  Go back to if You use the system, then You pay for the system.  Scrap Medicare.  The minority of taxpayers that pay the majority of tax are fed up with paying for freeloaders that just whinge and whine when they should be saying thanks.

Those ((private) businesses using govt subsidies are very good at freeloading.