National Health Reform Agreement
AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that the AMA is pleased that health reform has been re-ignited with the signing of the National Health Reform Agreement by all the States and Territories.
Dr Hambleton said that the new funding and financing arrangements, coupled with the transparency and accountability measures, should ensure that every precious health dollar is spent on health care services.
“There was some compromise necessary to get everyone signed on to this agreement, but we now have a starting point to achieve genuine and much-needed health reform,” Dr Hambleton said.
“Our preference has always been for a single funder of public hospitals, but there is a national funding pool and significantly increased transparency.
“It is critical that the States and Territories direct the additional Commonwealth funding to increase the capacity of public hospitals to meet the needs of local communities.
“The Prime Minister made it clear today that local doctors will be involved in decision-making.
“From the AMA’s perspective, this means local doctors being involved in service planning and resource allocation decisions at the hospital level to ensure that health dollars are spent caring for patients and providing services that local communities need.
“The AMA takes it as a positive signal that the Government and COAG have clearly been listening to the panel of experts, which includes clinicians, and this consultative approach must carry on through the life of the agreement.
“The new transparency and accountability measures will ensure that the State and Territory Governments take their responsibilities seriously.
“Today’s agreement is essentially a reform of health financing arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States.
“The real health reform will come with system re-design and proper service planning at the local level through the Local Hospital Networks (LHNs) engaging with local clinicians.
“The AMA will be urging all governments to make consultation with doctors a priority and to ensure that doctors are part of LHN leadership and decision-making,” Dr Hambleton said.
Dr Hambleton said that it is vital that the hospital reforms complement the parallel reforms in primary health care.
2 August 2011
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