Health funding needs fixing

Transcript: AMA Queensland President, Professor Chris Perry, Nine Network, The Today Show with Karl Stefanovic and Ally Langdon, Thursday 26 May 2022

Subject: Health system crisis

ALLY LANGDON:  This is the drama you have when it's a state issue, health, but it's also a lot of federal funding. Let's bring in Dr Chris Perry, who's President of the Queensland AMA in Brisbane. Chris, I imagine that a lot of this is resonating with you. You're dealing with similar scenarios in Queensland. What do you put it all down to?

CHRIS PERRY:   Australia basically knocked down their public hospitals about 30 years ago, I think in Adelaide, 10 years ago, and they've rebuilt new hospitals. And those hospitals have too few beds. The major hospitals in Brisbane reopened during Peter Beattie's time with half the beds they had before they were knocked down. So, the AMA federal figures on this, in Australia, in 1994, there were 30 beds for every 1,000 people over the age of 65. Now there's 15. We've cut our public hospital beds down to half the size of what they should be, so you can't get out of the ambulance, because the accident and emergency is full, and they can't take patients up to the wards because the wards are full. So, we need a serious conversation about proper funding. It'll take a decade or more to make the bed numbers go up appropriately. And we also need to look at general practice, how that's funded, because it's hopeless as well, especially for people in outer-metropolitan, rural areas.

ALLY LANGDON: Yeah, Chris, I've never felt until sort of now where we're at, at the moment, that if you needed help, I've always believed that in Australia, if you were sick, you would get the help that you wanted and you'd be okay. And I reckon for about the first time ever, I'm not sure anymore.

CHRIS PERRY:    Yeah. There's always been ramping, certainly in Queensland - it predates COVID - but not as bad as is at the moment. As Tony Bartone was saying, there's pent up demand. When a medical patient, an unwell elderly person gets to the hospital, it's very hard to get them out. There aren't enough aged care places. There aren't enough NDIS assessments that are done quickly enough, so a lot of elderly and infirm people are taking up regular beds, and so the routine surgical cases can't get a bed, can't get staff. Staff are sick, sure. But it's more than that. It's the hospitals are too small.

ALLY LANGDON: Yeah. Well look, all I know is if when all of our frontline staff are screaming out for more help, then there's an issue here that needs to be dealt with, and we really appreciate all of you coming on this morning and sharing your thoughts. Thank you.

26 May 2022