CATHOLIC Health Australia (CHA) has obtained a guarantee from the Federal Government that no Catholic hospital will be worse off under the proposed national health reforms.
CHA chief executive officer Martin Laverty said the guarantee had been sought, and given, “specifically in the areas of funding and the ability of Catholic hospitals to retain ethical independence once they became part of Local Hospital Networks”.
Mr Laverty, who attended a bi-monthly meeting of CHA board directors at Brisbane’s Mater Hospital on April 22, said these and other matters involving the Government’s proposed health reforms had been discussed at the meeting.
The CHA head said he could see several positives in the proposed reforms but saw problems if the changes focused too much on financial issues and not enough on clients.
Mr Laverty spoke of many months of discussions with Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon on topics including the CHA’s experiences in the successful running of hospitals.
“We’ve told the Government that the success of the Catholic system has come from focus on mission – in our case Catholic mission,” he said.
“This has resulted in a beneficial balance between areas of financial management and clinical and pastoral care.”
Mr Laverty said he saw the proposed health reforms as having three components.
“These are the setting up of Local Hospital Networks, the initiation of Activity Based Funding and GST arrangements with the states in terms of paying for these reforms,” he said.
It was on the subject of Local Hospital Networks and the hospital boards to run these networks that many discussions were held.
“We offered to Federal Government our experience of setting up hospital boards and of our focus on the mission of healing people not just counting dollars,” Mr Laverty said.
“We have consistently said that if these boards are set up and don’t have a sense of mission, they risk disaster.”
The experiences of the United Kingdom and New Zealand were given as examples, the most recent being that of the Otago District Health Board.
“The Otago board last month directed GPs to write less prescriptions,” Mr Laverty said.
“Aged carers (in Otago) have also been ordered to halve their home visits to the aged.
“All of this has come about through financial mismanagement, with the clients’ needs of secondary importance.”
Mr Laverty said discussions with Ms Roxon had also looked at the impacts of the proposed reforms on Catholic hospitals.
“These discussions have particularly considered how hospitals within the CHA will fit into Local Hospital Networks,” he said.
“Some small Catholic hospitals will most likely become part of local networks.
“Larger hospitals may themselves become an actual network.”
The adoption of Queensland’s successful Surgery Connect model was one positive in the proposed reforms, Mr Laverty said.
“It’s a credit to the way QHealth and the Brisbane Mater have operated this program that it is going to be rolled out as part of the Local Hospital Network plan,” he said.
“The number of people overdue for their public elective surgery in Queensland has already fallen by 20 per cent under Surgery Connect – the system that has been matching public patients with Catholic and other private hospitals for about two years.
“Surgery Connect takes advantage of the surplus service that often exists in private hospitals.”
Mr Laverty said the proposed changes to GST arrangements were a matter for the states and Federal Government to work out.
“This leaves the Activity Based Funding proposal … It’s yet to be seen how this will be set up and how resources to hospitals will be allocated,” he said.
“The main concern is that all hospitals get sufficient resources.
“This will be determined by how well Activity Based Funding arrangements are organised.
“Again quite a few Catholic hospitals within the CHA have been running on this model for a while and have much in the way of experience to contribute.”
At last month’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, the leaders of Australia’s states and territories, with the exception of Western Australia, reached a consensus on the Federal Gov-ernment’s proposed health reforms.
The reforms include the handing over of 30 per cent of the states’ GST funds to the Commonwealth to help pay for reforms.
In return for the endorsement of its hospital and health reforms, the Federal Government promised the states and territories $500 million over four years to reduce waiting times to just four hours in public hospital emergency departments.
A further $650 million was promised for elective surgery, $1.6 billion to provide 1316 sub-acute beds and $600 million in capital funding for emergency departments, elective surgery and the sub-acute area.
The reforms have yet to pass the Senate.
