State back health mutiny

The federal government has told the states it does not support major reform of the health system and has taken it off the agenda for Friday's Council of Australian Governments meeting, according to sources close to the negotiations.

But the states look set to mutiny, with at least four of them and the federal opposition backing an alternative health-reform plan drawn up by more than 40 health stakeholder groups sick of stalling on reform.

In a letter to the states, the Prime Minister said the division between federally run GPs and aged care services and the state-run public hospitals should be retained.

Instead of radical reform, he proposed the governments "open a dialogue on how they can work together" to improve care for the elderly, people with disabilities and young people in nursing homes.

He also proposed further dialogue on a national telephone triage service even though the measure has already been discussed by health ministers and the states have begun implementing their own systems with COAG to review reports on these areas in December.

But NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland have already agreed in principle to support the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance's alternative plan.

NSW Premier Bob Carr will meet Alliance chair John Dwyer today to discuss details of the plan, which calls for the establishment of four taskforces to fast-track reform in the health workforce, preventative health-care, electronic health records and the integration of federal and state services in primary care.

Some reforms could be in place within a year, with the taskforces made up of state and federal public servants and health sector representatives - focused on recommending and implementing changes rather than more consultation, Alliance chair John Dwyer said. The taskforces' first recommendations would be due in six months and could be implmented soon after.

"We've been talking about health care reform in Australia for a long, long time, but that's all we do, talk about it.... It's very hard to point your finger to any success in the past few years," Professor Dwyer said.

"It's just not acceptable any longer to have our political leaders, who have inherited this mess, put this in the politically too-hard basket."

SA Health Minister Lea Stevens said she would support the Alliance plan "as long as we are guaranteed it is about achieving action".

A spokesman for Victorian Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said the Bracks government was "searching for a more action-oriented" and wider reform agenda than offered by the federal government.

"If these proposals by the reform group are an avenue for broadening out the discussion and getting some real action happening then we would ....wholehehearedly support them." Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said: "We have worked with the Alliance in the past..... and we will continue to do so."

The wide range of stakeholders backing the alternative plan - including general practitioners, nurses, public hospital workers and doctors, aged care professionals, the Australian Consumers' Association, Australian Council of Social Service and the Country Womens' Association - will winch up pressure on the commonwealth to endorse the agenda or offer an alternative.

"You'd like to think that this would put some pressure on the federal government," Ms Pike's spokesman said.

Comment on this article

printer-friendly version

© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU)
This page: http://www.hsua.org.au/news/1117496117_5102.html
Last Modified: Wednesday, 16-Nov-2005 17:18:59 EST