Surgery wait list reaches 8,000, NSW hospitals

[annielaurie]

Surgery wait list reaches 8,000, NSW hospitals

Fri Oct 16, 2009

Nationals' Senator Fiona Nash says more than 8,000 patients are on surgical waiting lists at New South Wales north coast hospitals ...

Senator Nash says a recent report card produced by the Australian Medical Association shows more than 1,300 people on the Lismore waiting list and more than 1,100 at Tweed Heads.

She says those figures have more than doubled over the past five years.

"Well I'm sure the Labor Government will come up with some sort of spin on why the figures are the way they are, but I think people in regional communities are smarter than that," she said.

"They know that an increase in people waiting is simply that, more people waiting to be treated in our hospital system because the Labor Government has let it run down so badly."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... ?site=news

Discussion ...

[Jovial Monk]

Bloody Howard ripped money out of public hospitals when he implemented his stupid Health Care Rebate which gave taxpayers money to health insurance insurers. I have seen somewhere figures that public hospital workloads have been going up 25% a year but funding only 8% a year.

Massive funds will be needed to fix that situation. Rudd announced an increase in public hospital funds of $20Bn a year, from about $40Bn per year to over $60Bn per year. Don't know how the GFC affected that. GP superclinics are going up and may reduce this workload, esp on accident & emergency.

[Doyle]

Under the Elective Surgery Waiting List Reduction Plan median waits for surgery have decreased. There was a blitz in the first year of the plan which set targets for states to meet in order to get the cash from the Feds. All jurisdictions met the targets and in all cases far exceeded the targets. Stage two of the plan offered up cash to states for infrastructure and equipment projects which should start to show reductions in the next year. Stage Three should be rolled out late this year or early next year where states are also given payments in phases provided they meet agreed performance targets.

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/ ... y-progress

The information the AMA trotted out was a little out of date and they have an intense dislike for this government because it wants to use super qualified nurses to handle some of the less complicated tasks now undertaken by doctors. The AMA is a very cashed up and powerful Union and usually get what they want.

The trouble is in terms of workforce. It takes a long time and a lot of money to train staff.

[donniedarko]

The AMA report card trotted out last week was a typically poor document on the performance of our public health system. The AMA is a worker's union that enjoys a facade of respect due to the workers it represents, but somehow keeps getting soundbites on the politically-charged tripe spewing from the pen of the latest national AMA president. A more equitable and efficient health system is not the goal of the AMA, unless is it only doctors that are fully in charge and unchallenged.

The AMA figures are misrepresentative - closer scrutiny will show statements like '...does not meet the AMA recommended national target...' etc. The only national targets worth considering are those published by COAG and monitored by AIHW (in the annual Australian Hospital Statistics publication) or other (such as the Reports on Government Services).

The AMA has floundered under the Rudd administration, mainly in part to Nicola Roxon's refusal to be smarmied by their views and her determination to hold their members accountable for the privileges they enjoy due to a near-monopoly on the PBS and MBS.

[Lefteee]

You know, after all the horror stories I heard about the state of QLD hospitals, I have only had the occasion to need one once. On our last trip around this great continent, only 6 hours from home my young bloke fell off his scooter and landed on the handlebar. As he continued to complain of stomach pain, we took him straight to the Royal Brisbane womens and childrens hospital (I think it's called).

We couldn't fault the attention he recieved. He was immediately virtually inundated with a constant stream of doctors and nurses and after around four hours was released. A friend to his son - a cerebral palsy sufferer - to the Gladstone hospital after an accident and said he couldn't fault the level of care. Which is good because it had a pretty grim reputation for years.

[Lefteee]

You sound like you don't like workers unions Darth?

[donniedarko]

You sound like you don't like workers unions Darth?

I don't like the AMA.

I don't like that they pass themselves as the essential poobah of any public health policy development, instead of concentrating on being a worker's union.

The AMA's paying members do not face the same threats to their workplace conditions or welfare as the constituents of other worker's unions, so the AMA really does have a cushy job in that regard.

For far too long the AMA enjoyed an inflated political presence due to our traditional patriarchal medical model. The recommendations of the AMA reflect those of their members, not the overall public health benefit of all Australians. (eg the AMA would rather have many more expensive doctors trawling through the wards of hospitals, doing every menial clinical task possible (like putting stitches in a cut) instead of allowing nurses with far more experience to perform the role. )

[Jovial Monk]

The AMA should be WorkChoiced!

[Lefteee]

The recommendations of the AMA reflect those of their members, not the overall public health benefit of all Australians. (eg the AMA would rather have many more expensive doctors trawling through the wards of hospitals, doing every menial clinical task possible (like putting stitches in a cut) instead of allowing nurses with far more experience to perform the role. )

So you're saying that the AMA is always pushing for doctors to perform duties that you feel could be done more cheaply by nurses?

You sound as though you fit into this story personally somewhere. Public health administration?

[donniedarko]

The recommendations of the AMA reflect those of their members, not the overall public health benefit of all Australians. (eg the AMA would rather have many more expensive doctors trawling through the wards of hospitals, doing every menial clinical task possible (like putting stitches in a cut) instead of allowing nurses with far more experience to perform the role. )

So you're saying that the AMA is always pushing for doctors to perform duties that you feel could be done more cheaply by nurses?

You sound as though you fit into this story personally somewhere. Public health administration?

Saying the AMA will push for the maintenance of a patriarchal medical model at the expense of an efficient public health system, yet proclaim to only have the greater health of all Australians at heart.

My personal history has nothing to do with it - the AMA's behaviour is not hard to spot.