Post by Banjo on Jan 2, 2014 9:45:52 GMT 7
PM Tony Abbott under fire over looming health bill surge
Decisions made by Tony Abbott when he was health minister will soon cause a blowout in healthcare costs, dwarfing potential savings from a $6 fee for GP visits, a health workforce expert says.
As health minister in the Howard government, Mr Abbott oversaw a massive expansion of new medical schools, leading to an oversupply of graduating doctors, said Peter Brooks, former director of the Australian Health Workforce Institute and now a professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Australia is expected to have 2811 superfluous doctors by 2025, according to projections in a 2012 report by the government body Health Workforce Australia. The figure assumes a modest 5 per cent increase in productivity in the healthcare system.
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Professor Brooks said health lobby groups often say Australia will be short 2700 doctors by 2025, but the figure was misleading because it assumed no productivity gains would be made.
The boom in medical graduates would lead to a blowout in costs, with doctors already giving patients too many unnecessary procedures so they could earn a good living in Australia's fee-for-service system, Professor Brooks said.
At least $20 billion of ''low-value'' medical procedures were being done every year.
Professor Brooks said if Mr Abbott wanted a ''sustainable'' healthcare system he should fix these multibillion-dollar structural healthcare problems rather than ''fiddling'' with fees for GP visits.
The Medicare controversy began at the weekend with reports of a submission to the government's Commission of Audit by Mr Abbott's former health adviser, Terry Barnes. Mr Barnes said the government would save $750 million over four years by forcing bulk-billing patients to pay $6 to visit their GP for the first 12 visits a year.
A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said the Coalition ''won't be commenting on speculation around what the Commission of Audit may or may not recommend''.
''Labor spent a lot of money on creating huge health bureaucracies,'' she said. ''The Coalition government is committed to directing more of that money back to delivering and improving front-line services for patients.''
Professor Brooks said debate over the $6 fee was obscuring a more important debate over healthcare costs.
Australian governments had become ''doctor obsessed'', ignoring evidence that many tasks performed by doctors could be given to other professionals such as pharmacists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
The healthcare system is plagued by waste, according to the CareTrack study published in 2012, with patients getting appropriate care in only 57 per cent of visits to doctors.
Another study published in 2012, led by Adam Elshaug from the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, identified 156 ''low-value'' medical services. Questionable, expensive procedures cited included arthroscopic surgery for knee osteoarthritis, prostatectomy for early-stage prostate cancer, upper airway surgery for sleep apnoea and acupuncture for depression.
In recent years federal governments have allowed new medical schools to open at Deakin University in Victoria, Bond, James Cook and Griffith universities in Queensland, Notre Dame in Western Australia and NSW, and New England, Western Sydney and Wollongong universities in NSW.
Health Workforce Australia reports that in 2003, 1889 students began medical degrees. By 2012 there were 3686 students beginning medicine studies.
The medical education peak body, Medical Deans Australia, says medical graduates more than doubled between 1996 and 2012, excluding international students.
Read more: www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pm-tony-abbott-under-fire-over-looming-health-bill-surge-20140101-3066o.html#ixzz2pCnRKO3F
Decisions made by Tony Abbott when he was health minister will soon cause a blowout in healthcare costs, dwarfing potential savings from a $6 fee for GP visits, a health workforce expert says.
As health minister in the Howard government, Mr Abbott oversaw a massive expansion of new medical schools, leading to an oversupply of graduating doctors, said Peter Brooks, former director of the Australian Health Workforce Institute and now a professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Australia is expected to have 2811 superfluous doctors by 2025, according to projections in a 2012 report by the government body Health Workforce Australia. The figure assumes a modest 5 per cent increase in productivity in the healthcare system.
Advertisement
Professor Brooks said health lobby groups often say Australia will be short 2700 doctors by 2025, but the figure was misleading because it assumed no productivity gains would be made.
The boom in medical graduates would lead to a blowout in costs, with doctors already giving patients too many unnecessary procedures so they could earn a good living in Australia's fee-for-service system, Professor Brooks said.
At least $20 billion of ''low-value'' medical procedures were being done every year.
Professor Brooks said if Mr Abbott wanted a ''sustainable'' healthcare system he should fix these multibillion-dollar structural healthcare problems rather than ''fiddling'' with fees for GP visits.
The Medicare controversy began at the weekend with reports of a submission to the government's Commission of Audit by Mr Abbott's former health adviser, Terry Barnes. Mr Barnes said the government would save $750 million over four years by forcing bulk-billing patients to pay $6 to visit their GP for the first 12 visits a year.
A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said the Coalition ''won't be commenting on speculation around what the Commission of Audit may or may not recommend''.
''Labor spent a lot of money on creating huge health bureaucracies,'' she said. ''The Coalition government is committed to directing more of that money back to delivering and improving front-line services for patients.''
Professor Brooks said debate over the $6 fee was obscuring a more important debate over healthcare costs.
Australian governments had become ''doctor obsessed'', ignoring evidence that many tasks performed by doctors could be given to other professionals such as pharmacists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
The healthcare system is plagued by waste, according to the CareTrack study published in 2012, with patients getting appropriate care in only 57 per cent of visits to doctors.
Another study published in 2012, led by Adam Elshaug from the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, identified 156 ''low-value'' medical services. Questionable, expensive procedures cited included arthroscopic surgery for knee osteoarthritis, prostatectomy for early-stage prostate cancer, upper airway surgery for sleep apnoea and acupuncture for depression.
In recent years federal governments have allowed new medical schools to open at Deakin University in Victoria, Bond, James Cook and Griffith universities in Queensland, Notre Dame in Western Australia and NSW, and New England, Western Sydney and Wollongong universities in NSW.
Health Workforce Australia reports that in 2003, 1889 students began medical degrees. By 2012 there were 3686 students beginning medicine studies.
The medical education peak body, Medical Deans Australia, says medical graduates more than doubled between 1996 and 2012, excluding international students.
Read more: www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pm-tony-abbott-under-fire-over-looming-health-bill-surge-20140101-3066o.html#ixzz2pCnRKO3F