Last Friday, the AMA and other medical groups called for action on public hospitals saying the solution was about more than funding - a coordinated plan is needed to ensure that patients are in the right environment with the right care for their condition or ailment.

Dr Haikerwal said that Labor has today announced a public hospitals plan, but it is not the coordinated one that is required.

"The new funding is welcome but a lot of the policy is based on wrong assumptions about relieving the pressure on hospital emergency departments," Dr Haikerwal said.

"The evidence is that access block, not the shortage of GP services, is the key issue causing queues at public hospitals.  And there is a question mark over where Labor expects to find new medical staff in the short term at a time of workforce shortages.

"While Labor has clearly recognised the problems confronting our public hospitals, the almost $1 billion of new funding should have been better targeted.

"Our public hospitals are national treasures.  Labor could have done better with this package."

Following is the AMA's detailed analysis of Labor's announcement:

Specialist treatment in outpatient clinics at public hospitals

• This appears to be a substitute for the Medicare safety net in the provision of financial assistance for costs of specialist medical services.  But many of these specialist outpatient services are already being delivered in public hospitals.  There is a question mark over whether this is just shifting the cost to the Commonwealth without any additional service delivery
• Salaried specialists are already concerned about the amount of private work they are carrying out and it is questionable whether they can deliver additional services
• VMOs are unlikely to provide additional private sessions in public hospitals if they are compelled to bulk bill.

Specialist Training Places

• Funding is welcome, but insignificant. There are currently 1100 first year specialist training places - adding 20 per year makes very little difference

Medical Specialist Outreach Program

• The maths do not seem to support the case that there has been a funding increase.  On the face of the ALP figures, there appears to be an overall funding cut of around $9 million over 4 years.

 

$17.5 million for Isolated & Interstate Patient Transport and Accommodation

• This is a very welcome initiative.

$8.75 million for Rural Specialist Training Support

• A welcome initiative that is consistent with AMA policy to increase resources and training posts in rural areas.

$350 million for Priority Needs in Public Hospitals

• Significant funding is being put forward for equipment - while this is a positive initiative, it must be recognised that there are not enough staff to run existing facilities
• No real solutions to access block or exit block put forward.

$122 million for Medicare Teams and After Hours Co-located Clinics

• Evidence already shows that access block, not the shortage of GP services, is the key issue for Emergency Departments.  Money is therefore poorly targeted.

$64 million for More Medical Places at Universities

• ALP appears to have their sums wrong.  They claim that their initiatives will result in 2700 doctors graduating each year from 2012.  AMA estimates of the impact are more in the range of 2400 per year once the ALP projections have been added in. This is consistent with the announcements already made by the Coalition.
• Most importantly, neither party has any plan or made funding announcements about the huge jump in clinical placements that will result.  Nor have they said how they will find post-graduate training places once students leave university.

$3.5 million for more rural remote and medical student scholarships

• This builds on existing programs that are working well and is welcomed.

Bonded University Places

• Based on overseas evidence, unfunded bonding does not work and the ALP would have been better to provide more funding for scholarship-based program.
• The conditions applying to the serving of the bond have however been relaxed in accord with sensible practice.

22 September 2004

CONTACT:            John Flannery            (02) 6270 5477 / (0419) 494 761