AMA Submission Recommends Significant Incremental Reform of the Health System
The AMA has presented a comprehensive submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing Inquiry into Health Funding.
AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, said today that there are key areas of the health system that need significant reform, with the priority being well-managed and collaborative incremental change to fix the recurring problems in Commonwealth/State funding arrangements - not a 'big bang' reform approach.
Dr Glasson said all Governments must put patient care and community health ahead of party politics in future Health Care Agreements.
"We need to re-define the roles and responsibilities of the different levels of Government," Dr Glasson said.
"Decision makers must approach reform from a patient perspective, and not look at everything as accountants or cost controllers.
"Structural reform and forward planning is essential to support our public hospitals for the next generation of Australians, to provide quality clinical training for our young doctors and medical students, and to build a medical workforce in the right numbers and with the right skills to serve our ageing population.
"We have to build a system that allows patients to receive the best possible care and treatment in the most appropriate environment for their condition, be it in a public hospital, private hospital, aged care hostel, community care, or in their own home.
"This will involve more than cooperation between governments. It needs cooperation between all medical and health professionals, colleges, associations, and the public and private sectors.
"And it will mean doing more for the people doing it toughest in the current system - Indigenous Australians, people with mental illness, the aged and the chronically ill, and low-income families with young kids.
The detailed AMA submission also looks at:
- ways to simplify funding arrangements
- providing greater accountability from governments
- sustaining the private health sector and private health insurance
- consideration of a single safety net to cover Medicare and the PBS
- embracing IT initiatives, and
- the role of the GP in guiding patients through the maze of the health system.