Alex Somlyay (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing, I present the committee’s report entitled The blame game: report on the inquiry into health funding, together with the minutes of proceedings.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper

It gives me great pleasure to table the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing for its inquiry into health funding. A common complaint to members of parliament is that, when people are unhappy about their health care, both the Commonwealth and the states blame each other for the failings of the health system.

While the associated political grandstanding often makes for some good headlines, the blame game does not benefit patients.

People do not care which level of government manages or pays for their health care—they want reliable access to quality care. Addressing the blame game will involve a national approach to developing and funding health care. This will require leadership from the Australian government, with cooperation by the states and a joint commitment to end the blame game. The complexity of health delivery and financing, the rate of development of new health technologies and rising community expectations mean that ongoing reform is needed.

A key recommendation of the committee is that the Australian government needs to provide leadership in developing a ‘national health agenda’, in consultation with the states and territories.

The national health agenda should develop a range of national standards and principles that guide funding arrangements. It should also provide a clear articulation about what the community can expect to receive from the health system, including the extent to which rationing is acceptable.

I welcome the Australian government’s recent commitment to address the underinvestment in training places over the past 15 to 20 years. This should address the concerns of many inquiry participants about reduced access to health services.

Attention now needs to be paid to ensuring that there are sufficient clinical training opportunities in both the public and private sectors for rising numbers of health trainees. The committee proposes that the Australian government becomes a ‘purchaser’ of clinical training from both the public and private sectors rather than relying on the states’ goodwill. The current five-year Australian healthcare agreements expire on 30 June 2008 and governments are considering options for reform.

The committee supports some change from the current funding model to remove barriers to health reform and more closely link funding with national policy standards and accountability for quality health care.

Many local councils have taken up some slack and make a significant contribution to providing access to health services. Funding arrangements should more closely address the healthcare needs of people living in regional and rural areas.

One key objective of undertaking this inquiry was to allow for a transparent discussion with organisations and individuals outside government about their ideas on health funding.

The inquiry gave the community an important avenue for input into health policy development. This opportunity was denied in other significant health reviews undertaken at the same time as this inquiry—by the Council of Australian Governments and by a task force led by Mr Andrew Podger. It was particularly pleasing to receive submissions and hear evidence from the governments of the ACT, Victoria, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. Unfortunately, other state governments did not choose to make a direct contribution to the inquiry—but did voice opinions in the media.

During the course of the inquiry, there were significant problems in the Queensland health system, including allegations of misconduct in Bundaberg Hospital by the so-called Dr Death. The people of Queensland deserve better—and it is clear that significant reform is needed within Queensland Health to ensure that there is no repeat of the horrors allegedly allowed to be practised by Dr Patel.

Compiling such a comprehensive report relies on the assistance of many people. I thank the many individuals and organisations who assisted by making a submission or giving evidence at a hearing. Their expertise and experience is greatly valued and they laid a strong foundation for our deliberations.

I must thank my fellow committee members for the assistance they provided during the course of the inquiry—in particular, the deputy chair, Jill Hall MP. I would also like to thank Mr Ian Bigg, a secondee from the Department of Health and Ageing, for his invaluable contribution to the report—and, of course, the minister and the department for making this possible. The staff of the secretariat provided an enormous amount of help in this inquiry. It is one of the most difficult and complex inquiries I have been involved with in my 17 years in parliament and I pay tribute to the secretariat, which provided us with an enormous amount of help.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing into health funding has been aptly named The blame game. The one thing that became apparent throughout the inquiry was that there was always the potential to blame someone else for problems in the health system.

The committee believes that the single most important thing that could be delivered to the Australian people is a transparent, accountable health system, and that would ensure the equitable delivery of health services to all Australians, no matter where they live or what their financial circumstances are. Health services should be delivered according to need and should be about what a person needs; they should not be about what they can pay or where they live. The message given to the committee can be best summed up by an opening quote from Associate Professor Green. She said:

... when we are overseas and get sick, where do we want to be? Almost without exception people want to come to Australia. All of us who have travelled to other countries would almost always say that you want to go home. So whilst I think we are actually very harsh on our own health service—I think we are very critical; I am not sure why, but we are—in fact, it stacks up against just about any health service in the world.

She went on to say:

... Australia does not need to spend more money on health. We should be spending it much more effectively and efficiently ...

I think she was making a very good point there. We have a wonderful health system in Australia, but we need to make it even better.

This report is a unanimous one, despite the fact that the committee members approached it from very different philosophical positions. We believe that, by delivering a unanimous report to the parliament, there is a very good chance that the government will pick up on some of the outstanding recommendations in the report. I will turn very briefly to some of those recommendations.

I will turn first to recommendation No. 1, which states that we should develop a national health agenda. I think that became very apparent to all members of the committee quite early in the piece. We need to have a national health agenda that all levels of government and all people involved in the health system can work towards.

The next recommendation I will touch on briefly deals with dental care—a subject that came up a number of times when we were taking evidence. Turning to the body of the report, it says:

The provision of dental care in a timely manner can significantly affect a person’s quality of life and future health costs.

At 3.114, the report states that dental health should be treated no differently to other health services. Recommendation No. 3 of the report states:

The Australian Government should supplement state and territory funding for public dental services so that reasonable access standards for appropriate services are maintained ...

I think any member of this House would report that this is one of the most important and prevalent issues to be raised with us in our electorates. I think that is an outstanding recommendation and one that I hope the government will pick up on.

I will turn now to the sustainability of our health workforce. Terry Clout, CEO of the Hunter New England Health Service, which is in my area, pointed out that, if you are in metropolitan Sydney, the further away you are from the Harbour Bridge, the more you are impacted upon by the shortage of trained doctors, nurses and allied health staff. Overwhelmingly throughout this inquiry it was brought out in the evidence we received that there is a chronic skills shortage across all health professions, be it in doctors, nurses, allied health workers or dentists; there is a skills shortage within the community.

Terry Clout goes on to point out that the further you move away from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the greater that skills shortage becomes. I think that the recommendations in the report should be taken up.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member’s time has expired.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I was denied two minutes to speak.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Shortland, I was not advised. The member for Shortland.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Could I at least make my concluding comments. I would like to draw people’s attention to the following recommendations: recommendation No. 8, on private sector training; recommendations 4, 6 and 7, on training; and recommendations 21 and 22, on private health.

I would like to conclude my contribution by thanking all those who gave evidence to the committee, either as witnesses or through submissions. I would like to thank the Health and Ageing secretariat and once again Ian Bigg, who was seconded to the committee and helped us prepare such an excellent report. And, of course, I would like to thank the chair of the committee, Alex Somlyay. It has been a pleasure working with Alex. I think we have been a good team. Even though we are from different sides of this House, we have never lost sight of our goal, and that goal was to deliver a report that would make a difference, that would lead to changes and that would deliver better health outcomes and services to the Australian people.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for statements on this report has expired. Does the member for Fairfax wish to move a motion in connection with the report to enable it to be debated on a later occasion?

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

In accordance with standing order 39, the debate is adjourned. Resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour this day.