Stop passing the buck on healthcare

And there’s the rub. Who is responsible for such planning?  Unfortunately, no-one.

The State funds the hospitals, outpatient specialists and publicly funded allied healthcare providers in community health services. The Commonwealth directly oversees and funds doctors and specialists in private practice. Private allied healthcare providers are generally funded by the consumer except in some limited circumstances. And the local private hospital is funded by private health insurance and consumer co-payments. So, it’s nobody’s baby.

In fact, despite the rhetoric from the Australian Council of Health Ministers about encouraging integration between the private and public sectors, old habits die hard. Getting support from either the states or Commonwealth government for integrated planning appears nearly impossible and, as close as we’ve come on several occasions to getting such support, it’s fallen over each time. It’s always the other government’s problem.

So what should be a major focus of discussion and action in terms of the health of Australians? There’s one big one from where I’m sitting: just what is going to happen to all those increasingly old, increasingly unwell, increasingly poorly serviced consumers who are already in my area - and what’s going to happen to that next 60,000 of them?