Page 1529 - Week 05 - Thursday, 7 May 2015
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at funding community-based services where clinically appropriate, both on our own and in partnership with other providers, we will continue to provide options that are more easily accessible and less invasive than hospital-based care, as well as further investing in more hospital in the home services.
As just one example, our new, enhanced community health centres at Belconnen and Tuggeranong were built to provide the scope for more services to be moved out of hospitals and into these more convenient locations. Over time we will expand the types of services available at community health centres to include more complex outpatient services, some minor procedures and renal dialysis services. We are not just building facilities to meet growing demand.
The design of our new facilities includes consideration of how our buildings can work to provide care in a range of environments and with a more broadly based workforce. New clinical practice makes it possible to provide some services in less invasive environments and with a different level of skills than in the past. New technology in the form of medical devices and robotics will also give our clinicians new ways to treat patients that require less human intervention. We are also implementing new computer-based systems that call for fewer support staff, which will assist as the supply of highly skilled clinical staff begins to grow at a level that is below the demand for services.
All of the work we are doing to manage increasing demand and developing new systems and services to meet the community’s health needs requires a government with an understanding and a commitment to invest in these services. Unfortunately, we have a commonwealth Liberal government that do not seem to understand this. While they have backtracked on many of their proposals, their entire approach demonstrates that they do not understand how the health system works at the coalface or how increased funding in health services should be seen as an investment and not a cost.
A well-funded healthcare system provides care to people at the right time. A poorly resourced health sector leads to delays in access to treatment and care which can result in people presenting to services in a more serious condition than if they had attended earlier. This can result in major impacts on people’s health and extended time out of the workforce. It creates additional pressures on the community as a whole.
Well-funded health services are able to ensure that people get the care they need when they need it. That care should not be determined by your capacity to pay for it or be delayed due to the lack of resources within health facilities. And we have to stop this nonsense about people needing a price signal for health services. There is no evidence to suggest massive over-servicing of health services. Australians already fund health services through their taxes and we should not be adding more disincentives to use services nor reducing state and territory capacity to meet growing needs for health services.
The best performing nations in terms of overall economic performance are those with functioning universal health systems. There is a range of models but the best performing and healthiest nations are those where the entire community accepts that health care is a community asset not an individual whim.
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