More clinical consultation needed on national health performance authority
The AMA believes that a robust and transparent mechanism for reporting public hospital performance against national standards and performance indicators is needed to ensure that the State and Territory Governments direct any extra funding provided by the Commonwealth directly to more beds and more services, not bureaucracy.
Health Ministers yesterday endorsed in principle the draft Performance and Accountability Framework, which suggests that our governments are happy with the reporting mechanism, but the COAG Reform Council Performance report released today suggests that this mechanism is not yet in place and working effectively.
AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that the National Health Performance Authority reports must be about making sure that State and Territory Governments are accountable to the public for providing the services that the local communities need.
“Governments must ensure that local hospitals have sufficient capacity to meet demand and can provide safe, quality care,” Dr Hambleton said.
“Poor performance is usually symptomatic of underfunding, or funding that is not being directed to the right services to meet community need.
“Greater clinical involvement in decision making is needed to make sure that the appropriate level of funding is going to the right treatment in the right place at the right time.
“Local doctors know what the needs of the local communities are and must be involved in service planning and decisions about resource allocation.
“The AMA agrees that the States and Territories are the system managers and performance managers of public hospitals in Australia.
“The independence of the National Health Performance Authority is central to robustness and transparency, and for holding State and Territory Governments accountable to the public.
“But we believe that providing the State and Territory Governments with the opportunity to review poor performance data that they have already provided to the Authority, before it is publicly released, undermines the robustness and transparency of the whole process.
“There has been no consultation with the medical profession on the Performance Accountability Framework that the Health Ministers endorsed yesterday.
“Health Ministers at all levels continue to make decisions about the health system in isolation from the people who actually provide the services – the local doctors. This must change.”
8 June 2011
CONTACT: John Flannery 02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761
Geraldine Kurukchi 02 6270 5467 / 0427 209 753
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