Pm Tips Hospital Control
The Age
Saturday September 29, 2007
PRIME Minister John Howard has hinted that a Coalition Government could take greater control of public hospitals as the political fallout continues over a Sydney woman's miscarriage in the emergency room toilets at a NSW hospital.
The Coalition continued to blame the NSW Labor Government for the problems at the Royal North Shore Hospital, where Jana Horska miscarried, despite criticisms it has used her trauma for its own political advantage. As health continued to build as a key election issue, Mr Howard echoed his Health Minister, Tony Abbott, saying voters who wanted to see how federal Labor might run things should look at how state Labor ran them. He also said "the reputation of the NSW Labor Government in running hospitals is appalling". Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has promised to move towards a Commonwealth takeover of hospitals if the states do not agree to improve the way they are run. While the Government was attending to public hospitals, another health issue was gathering steam yesterday, with rural doctors and the Australian Medical Association planning to call for higher pay for those practising in the bush. The coalition between the AMA and the Rural Doctors Association of Australia - who have clashed over attempts by bush doctors to have rural medicine recognised as a specialty - is an indication of just how bad the rural crisis has become. According to figures the RDAA presented to a crisis summit on rural health earlier this month, less than 1 per cent of Queensland's 2005 and NSW's 2004 medical graduates are working in the bush.The Age believes the RDAA and the AMA will ask the Coalition and Labor to commit to increased payments for rural doctors in a bid to attract more Australian medical graduates. The cost of their proposal is believed to be hundreds of millions of dollars. The organisations are still negotiating on how the payments to rural GPs should be made. The RDAA is believed to favour a rural loading on existing Medicare rebates as well as a separate rebate for Medicare procedures carried out in rural areas, which doctors could charge on top of their normal fee. The more remote the location, the higher the loading and the rebate.But the AMA is concerned that paying a higher Medicare rebate in rural areas would create two tiers of GPs. It wants rural doctors to be given an incentive payment outside the Medicare system, The Age believes. Sources said the two doctors' groups were confident they would reach a common position. Mr Howard - who has ruled out a Commonwealth takeover of public hospitals - told 3AW that the Coalition Government would look at giving the Commonwealth "a greater role and a greater say" in how hospitals are run as part of negotiations for the next five-year hospital funding agreement with the states. And he hinted at further Commonwealth interventions in individual hospitals, saying he believed that there could be "better outcomes" if public hospitals were run by local community boards.
© 2007 The Age