Report on Emergency Departments / Federal Funding of Public Hospitals - Dr Capolingua on the Today Show

LISA WILKINSON: The report blames a lack of beds and deteriorating infrastructure as part of the problem.

AMA President Dr Rosanna Capolingua joins us now from Canberra. Good morning to you. Thank you so much for your time.

This is a pretty damning report. Is it your assessment they just can't cope?

DR CAPOLINGUA: Look, we see on a day-to-day basis, when there's a run of the flu, that often emergency departments and hospitals can't cope. So we know that emergency departments and hospitals are stressed on a continuing basis, that there aren't enough beds. But we also know that people are seriously looking at plans to cope with a disaster or emergency response.

KARL STEFANOVIC: So, at this point, would we be able to cope with it?

DR CAPOLINGUA: I think what happens is that all stops would come out, that we would decant patients out of the public hospitals. Elective surgery would be cancelled, so that you wouldn't be continuously adding people to the list. You'd look at the private sector, cancel elective surgery in the private sector and decant into that arena. You would need to be calling general practice in, perhaps, to actually be working assisting in emergency departments or, in fact, have patients that could be managed in general practice triaged out of emergency departments.

You'd get a real mobilisation of workforce and planning to enable us to cope with such situations.

LISA WILKINSON: That deterioration has happened just in the last three years; what's the reason for that?

DR CAPOLINGUA: I would think that the deterioration has probably been occurring for longer than three years. It's been an embedded process over time. It's been about public hospital funding and about not enough investment in growth in the hospital to respond to the needs in the community that have grown with the ageing population and chronic disease, and the ability for us to treat more things...

KARL STEFANOVIC: Right.

DR CAPOLINGUA: ... and treat things differently and better.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Now, the average - it says, the average Australian emergency department had 24 patients under treatment and another 6.5 waiting to be seen, and then waiting, in some cases, seven or eight hours to be seen by doctors. It's a pretty dire situation. I just wonder if the Federal Government, like they're proposing to do in Tasmania, took over some hospitals, whether it would ease that burden or not. What are your thoughts on that?

DR CAPOLINGUA: The public hospitals across Australia, like the rural hospitals, are funded through the Australian Health Care Agreements, which is Commonwealth funding matched by State funding, and then the administration of that money, the delivery of service, is done by the State.

There is no doubt that we need an increase in the Australian Health Care Agreement funding, and that agreement is due for recommencement in the middle of next year. And we need some serious indexation, way over the five per cent per annum that's been occurring. And then, we need to ensure that the States actually deliver that money, not into reports and reviews and plans, but into employing doctors and nurses, and retaining them, and expanding the bed numbers, so that we can actually look after more patients.

LISA WILKINSON: But do you back the Prime Minister's proposal?

DR CAPOLINGUA: The proposal around rural hospitals, at this point in time, is about one hospital. But the issue is, indeed, that there are rural hospitals right across Australia - there's something like 550 rural and remote hospital centres in this country.

We know that rural doctors need their public rural hospital to stay open and to be not downgraded, so that they can provide the services that the community needs using their hospital, and so that specialists can visit. So we need a national strategy. We need delegated funding in the Australian Health Care Agreement properly indexed to support all the rural hospitals in this country.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Yes or no answer. If the Federal Government said we're going to take over the hospitals that are in trouble across regional Australia, would you back it?

DR CAPOLINGUA: You know, I think it's not about a takeover bid, it's about a partnership between the State and Federal Governments.

KARL STEFANOVIC: All right.

DR CAPOLINGUA: The States know what they need. We just need to make sure that they deliver the services.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Good on you, Doctor, thanks for your analysis this morning. Appreciate it.

DR CAPOLINGUA: Thank you.

Ends