Page 188 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2010
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per annum, which is the highest in the country. Although I do not question the amount of money being spent, I do question the way it is being spent.
I make these points not as a political point scoring exercise but to highlight the fact that something significant does need to be done. As much as the government would have us believe that all things are on track, it is simply not the case. It is clear to anyone who works in the ACT health system, who studies it or tries to access it that we have fallen behind in key areas and we do need to catch up. This is not about to get any easier.
The pressures on the ACT health system will grow considerably over the next 20 to 25 years because of our expanding and ageing population. By the year 2032, Canberra’s population is projected to grow by approximately 67,000 people. The proportion of the population aged 65-plus is projected to increase from nine per cent to 25 per cent, and by 2022 the number of overnight hospital admissions is projected to increase by about 50 per cent. The problems of the present are nothing compared with what we will face in the future, and this has led to the phrase being coined that we are facing a health tsunami.
We also have to be realistic about what we can afford. The cost of delivering health care in the ACT is enormous, consuming nearly $1 billion of the ACT budget each year. As I said, that is growing by 11 per cent a year. Our system therefore needs not just to be more effective but more efficient. The government is endeavouring to increase the capacity of elements of our healthcare system. However, given the $57 million of infrastructure that ACT Health failed to deliver last year and the government’s track record on infrastructure delivery generally, I think it is reasonable to expect that the projects outlined in the government’s capital asset development plan are likely to be subject to scope reduction, delay and cost increase.
I also fear that we will struggle to staff an expanded health system adequately, given that we are struggling to adequately staff our system now, if we do not make some changes. Regardless, expansion of infrastructure is only one element of what needs to be addressed. As an example, the ACT government are spending less than any other jurisdiction except the Northern Territory on GPs, and I question whether we have the balance right.
Given the ever-increasing costs of health care and the growth in demand, we must not focus simply on “bigger” as a response; we must also focus on “better”. What I mean by “better” is, indeed, far less easy to define and far less politically saleable than building a new hospital or healthcare centre, but we must be far more efficient in the way we deliver services. We must be more effective in the services we provide, and we need to coordinate all of our health services far better.
So the question is: what should we be doing? During the course of 2009, three major reviews of the health sector commissioned by the commonwealth have reported: the National Hospitals and Health Reform Commission, the preventative health task force, and the primary healthcare strategy. I agree that the thrust of what is being said in each of the reports is of value, but the great challenge is actually turning the aspirations contained in those reports into a policy that is funded and then effectively implementing those policies.
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