Category: Health

Last week the Australian Health Policy Collaboration launched their Health Tracker by socioeconomic status, which is a report card on the health of adult Australians  in relation to chronic diseases, risk factors and rates of death, by quintiles of disadvantage. (more…)

Health outcomes for Australians living in rural or what are characterised as “remote” areas are far inferior to those of their city cousins. If you don’t live in metropolitan Australia your life expectancy is reduced by about four years. You are four times more likely to die of a stroke. Rates of obesity, infant mortality, mental health disorders, and diabetes are all much higher than is the case for our urban population. There is nothing new here, we have known about these realities for decades as well as the strategies needed to address the  problem. At least five major enquires have reached similar conclusions over the last decade yet hardly any of the recommendations have been implemented as needed policies are stymied by political wrangling and incompetence.This is particularly true for attempts to solve the biggest problem of all; the shortage of Australian trained doctors in the “bush”. (Part two)   (more…)

The Productivity Commission has recognised how joined up care for people with serious and complex illnesses can enhance their quality of life. Opportunities to prevent these problems abound and the time for action is now. (more…)

Health outcomes for Australians living in rural or what are characterised as “remote” areas are far inferior to those of their city cousins. If you don’t live in metropolitan Australia your life expectancy is reduced by about four years. You are four times more likely to die of a stroke. Rates of obesity, infant mortality, mental health disorders, and diabetes are all much higher than is the case for our urban population. There is nothing new here, we have known about these realities for decades as well as the strategies needed to address the  problem. At least five major enquires have reached similar conclusions over the last decade yet hardly any of the recommendations have been implemented as needed policies are stymied by political wrangling and incompetence.This is particularly true for attempts to solve the biggest problem of all; the shortage of Australian trained doctors in the “bush”. (Part one of two contributions)   (more…)

In part 1 yesterday, I outlined the five key areas or themes where the Productivity Commission believes that reform is essential and would deliver major benefits to individuals, the community and the economy. These five themes are summarised below.   (more…)

The Productivity Commission (hereafter the Commission) has recently released a very substantial and potentially important report, Shifting the Dial, and associated supporting papers. It was produced in response to a reference from the Treasurer for the Commission to investigate the state of productivity improvement and ways that government can enhance productivity performance. This is to be a five yearly review. The report is a most welcome contribution to public sector reform with major potential benefits to the community and represents a strategic and fundamental approach to public sector reform.  (more…)

NSW has finally committed to addressing systemic problems with medical training in a bid to improve the mental health of doctors-in-training.   (more…)

Hospital, where you go to get better, can have the opposite effect and high on the list of hazards is infection acquired while there.   Progress has occurred  but more needs to be done.  IT opens up great possibilities for scaling mountains of data that could improve patient welfare and save wasted money.  (more…)

The social harm of alcohol, alcohol’s ‘harm to others’, is a re-vitalised framework for national and international policies to control the marketing of alcohol. (more…)

Interestingly, the committee appointed by the Victorian government to report on ‘assisted dying’ was headed by the immediate past-president of the AMA, neurosurgeon Brian Owler. Neurosurgeons have a close connection with this problem when patients with severe head injuries have been on life-support for days or weeks with no apparent chance of meaningful survival. (more…)

Part 2 – Best practice and improved surgery outcomes

As the population ages, total knee replacement surgery is becoming commonplace.  It is one of the most expensive surgical procedures. Most replacements are performed as elective surgery in private hospitals. Those patients who must rely on the public system are waiting longer than ever.  

In Part 1 of this paper, the variations in frequency of knee replacement were considered. Given that most such procedures are cnducted in the private sector, the dependence on private health insurance creates disparities in access. Little information is available on preferred prostheses.

Part 2 considers patient satisfaction with knee surgery, access to rehabilitation after surgery and the broader consequences of knee surgery for national productivity. (more…)

 PART 1 – Access and affordability

As the population ages, total knee replacement surgery is becoming commonplace.  It is one of the most expensive surgical procedures. Most replacements are performed as elective surgery in private hospitals. Those patients who must rely on the public system are waiting longer than ever.  

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Australia’s productivity growth has been stagnant for over a decade and, according to a new report, our health policies and programs could be partly to blame. Released today, the Productivity Commission report also highlights how the health-care sector (among others) could play a starring role in improving productivity. (more…)

The notable feature of Australia’s heavy investment in health insurance is the lack of hard evidence to support the cost and performance of subsidised private health insurance. For health fund members baffled about the real impact of the Government’s private insurance reform plan, there was one indicator immediately available.  (more…)

So “Private Health insurance is in the DNA” of the Coalition government we hear from Minister Hunt. That may well be the case but there is no evidence to suggest that the delivery of equitable, quality health care to all Australians is so programmed. Indeed many have commented that the recent focus on private health insurance and the need for younger Australians to embrace a very poor deal is couched in rhetoric which suggests that Private Hospital care is better than Public Hospital care and, in any case, the public hospital system may not be there for you when you need it. (more…)

Obtaining first-line medical attention at night, especially if the patient is house-bound, has become increasingly difficult. Proposals to improve affordable access to such services need to take account of changing urban structures, medical culture and community expectations.  (more…)

So “private health insurance is in the DNA” of the Coalition government, we hear from Minister Hunt. That may well be the case but there is no evidence to suggest that the delivery of equitable, quality health care to all Australians is so programmed. Indeed many have commented that the recent focus on private health insurance and the need for younger Australians to embrace a very poor deal is couched in rhetoric which suggests that private hospital care is better than public hospital care and, in any case, the public hospital system may not be there for you when you need it. (more…)

Last week’s announcement from the Turnbull Government purported to be about making private health insurance “simpler and more affordable” but in fact delivered more for health insurance funds’ bottom lines than for Australians’ budgets and highlighted the contorted, confused and controversial logic that underpins the government’s push requiring taxpayers to contribute to the financing of both tiers of a two-tiered healthcare system. (more…)

The government’s changes to private health insurance have little, if anything, to do with health policy. Rather they are about staving off the insurers’ death spiral of rising premiums and desertion of profitable customers, and protecting the government from the embarrassment of yet another five or six per cent rise in premiums in 2018. (more…)

It’s been widely known for fifty years that the health of Aboriginal people lags far behind that of other Australians. Despite that and the expenditure of billions of taxpayers’ dollars, serious gaps persist between Indigenous versus non-Indigenous health and wellbeing. (more…)

Community Pharmacists spend too much time dispensing prescriptions and not enough time promoting the safe and effective use of their customer’s medicines. Reform is needed. (more…)

There is an obvious conflict of interests in any care industry where profits have to be made and returned to shareholders, rather than ploughed back into better care. Profit is never a good incentive for the common good. It’s easier to cut back on staff, food quality, proper supervision and social activity for those in care, while ramping up schemes that confuse people about entry and exit costs in aged care homes and deny families peace of mind and financial justice. Lack of enforcement of proper standards means the providers too often get away with it.  (more…)

Private health insurance has been allowed to undermine the universality Australian healthcare to the extent that international experts now downgrade the Australian system in comparison to those of similar countries because it is two-tiered. Growing public concerns about increasing premiums, unexpected out-of-pocket costs and inequalities have led to a focus on whether health insurance provides value for money. The focus should be widened to investigate the extent to which private health insurance supports low-value and low-quality healthcare services. (more…)