CATHOLIC Health Australia (CHA) has branded the failure of last Monday’s heads of government meeting in Brisbane to deliver immediate action on the nation’s over-loaded hospital and aged-care systems “a wasted opportunity”.
CHA chief executive officer Martin Laverty also noted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and other state and territory leaders attending the meeting had failed to address an offer to involve Catholic public hospitals in a scheme which would have saved millions of dollars in health service administration costs.
Under the CHA’s proposed scheme, Brisbane’s Mater Hospital and 20 other Catholic public hospitals around Australia would have become a testing ground for a change to Federal Government responsibility for hospital funding.
Mater Health Services chief executive officer Dr John O’Donnell said the scheme would be most feasible “as Catholic hospitals already have the internal systems in place to evaluate whether this funding system is a practical option for the Federal Government”.
Mr Laverty made the offer during a meeting with Federal Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon on November 25.
“The Council of Australian Governments’ meeting (COAG) has been nothing but a ‘talkfest’,” Mr Laverty said of the December 7 meeting.
“The communiqué issued after the meeting indicates that any real solutions to the current crisis in health care will have to wait until the first half of next year.
“This is not good enough – the CHA has been involved in thirteen separate specific enquiries into health and aged care in the two-year life of the current Government.
“We appreciate the level of consultation on health reform but the COAG meeting has not delivered what patients in hospitals and residents in aged-care services need.
“The time for talking and consulting is over – it’s time for action now.”
Before the COAG meeting, Mr Laverty told The Catholic Leader it would be a “wasted opportunity” if the proposals were not seriously discussed with a view to action.
“We’ve said when the PM and premiers meet they should agree that the Com-monwealth Government should fund all 750 public hospitals,” he said.
“Reform of the health system was one of the Prime Minister’s promises at the last election.
“Quite a few Catholic hospitals are ready to go (with the changes) right now.”
The potential savings of such a course of action “are considerable”, Mr Laverty said.
“Some estimates are that a Federal Government takeover of the health system across Australia could save as much as $2.5 billion,” he said.
“This is because of the red tape that would be cut if the role of the states is removed from the funding equation.
“After all, at the moment, nine departments of health administer public hospitals across Australia.”
Mr Laverty said cost savings were not the only “primary consideration” as such a decision would have other significant benefits.
“For example, a central funding body would be able to oversee quality and outcomes of health services across Australia,” he said.
CHA – which represents providers who care for one in 10 Australians who receive aged care – is also calling for a single national aged-care assessment process.
“Unwieldy and inconsistent legislation and regulation, and overlapping responsibilities between states and the Commonwealth, are delaying or even preventing timely access to aged care for many older Australians in need,” Mr Laverty said.
Speaking after the COAG meeting, Mr Rudd denied the Federal Government was moving too slowly on health services reform.
“If you’re dealing with the future of the health and hospitals system you’ve got to get it right,” Mr Rudd said.
“Not only is this a system which involves massive investments by the taxpayer … it is one upon which literally millions of Australians depend each year.”
