Beyond The Blame Game, Australia

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 08 May 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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The Australian Medical Association welcomed the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report and commends it for recommending improved accountability in the health system. The Commission proposes a clear allocation of responsibilities for delivering health services against performance indicators, to either Commonwealth or State Governments.

Governments at all levels must take heed of this report and must commit resources, both in hospitals and primary care to fulfil the criteria. This delineation and responsibility will reduce the "blame game".

AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, welcomed the introduction of specific performance indicators. The ultimate performance indicator for governments was the provision of timely and affordable health care and quality medical services for all Australians, regardless of their circumstance and location, she said. These must be supported by a highly-trained and skilled medical workforce.

Dr Capolingua raised concerns that the States and the Commonwealth might reduce their efforts in other areas in order to achieve performance targets. Incentives in one area must not detract from service provision in another.

"The system needs to remain patient focused - not focused on performance measures," she said.

Dr Capolingua welcomed the Commission's specific proposal to include medical workforce training benchmarks in future Australian Health Care Agreements.

"The Commission could have gone further by setting benchmarks for general practice training numbers. These need to be addressed if we are to maintain a strong primary care workforce and meet the Government's objectives for tackling chronic disease and increasing preventative health measures," she said.

Dr Capolingua said to achieve this, the Rudd Government needed to boost funding for GP training numbers and reform the Medicare Schedule to better support patients when seeing GPs.

The AMA was also pleased to see that the Commission recognised the importance of prevention and had set a goal of keeping people with chronic disease out of hospital.

Dr Capolingua welcomed the measures relating to indigenous child health and prevention but said that the outcomes for 'Close the Gap' benchmarks could be achieved yet still leave substantial differences in health status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

The AMA would continue to engage with and support the Commission's work.

Australian Medical Association