5.27pm Monday 23 August 2010 - Fairfax Media - SMH
The key players
For a one minute portrait of each of Tony Windsor, Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott, Tony Crook, Bob Katter, Adam Bandt visit this source.
Copyright © 2010 Fairfax Media
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9.40am Monday 23 August 2010 - ABC News
Labor wins Eden-Monaro
Labor's Mike Kelly has claimed victory in the so-called bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro.
Late on Saturday night with more than 70 per cent of the vote counted, Dr Kelly has secured a 1.3 per cent swing.
He says it is a fantastic result.
"I'd like to thank primarily, firstly and foremostly the people of Eden-Monaro," he said.
"They've understood that we have worked very hard with them, together we have achieved a great deal."
Eden-Monaro has fallen with the party who has gone on to win government at every election since 1972 but Labor frontbencher Stephen Smith wonders if it will retain its status as a litmus-test seat.
"I think the test now is whether Eden-Monaro remains a bellwether seat," he said.
Labor holds Eden-Monaro with a margin of 2.3 per cent.
Dr Kelly won Eden-Monaro in 2007 with a swing of more than 6 per cent.
This time the former military lawyer is up against the Liberal's David Gazard.
Mr Gazard is a former journalist and Liberal Party staffer.
The electorate stretches from Queanbeyan, down the New South Wales south coast and up to the New South Wales snowfields.
Source
12.07pm Saturday 21 August 2010 - ABC News
Bega hospital land 'Not done deal'
The Bega Valley Shire Mayor, Tony Allen, is warning there is still a lot of work to be done to secure land for a new regional hospital on the New South Wales far south coast and people shouldn't get their hopes up.
The Health Department has identified 22ha on Tathra Road, east of Bega, for the $100m facility.
The hospital was first announced in 2007 and was due for completion next year but has been delayed because of State Government funding difficulties.
Negotiations to secure land near Bega fell through earlier this year.
Councillor Allen says in the latest development, it is up to the land's owner to accept the offer.
"It will depend on the valuation," he said.
"The valuation has been done by an independent valuer who has expertise in working with the Health Department and it will depend on, I believe, the willingness of the owner to accept that valuation."
Source
12,05pm Saturday 21 August 2010 - BDN - Steve Strevens
Deal Almost Done
The long-awaited and much talked about land sale for the proposed new Bega Hospital is nearing completion.
Yesterday, Member for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly, who had brokered negotiations between land owner Ray Miller, the NSW Health Department and Bega Valley Shire Council, said a commitment by all parties to the sale was almost a reality.
As it now stands, Mr Kelly said, the Department of Health has identified and agreed on a site and will purchase the land for the amount put on it byRussell Nicholson, a valuer from Savilles, a Sydney based firm with extensive experience in valuing rural properties.
For his part, Mr Miller said he would sell the 22 hectare (about 55 acres) site, which is part of Dunbar, a dairy farm on the Bega-Tathra Road, as long as the valuation was “reasonable”.
“I have been very happy to work with Mike Kelly whose commitment to this has been well over and above anything anyone could have expected,” he said.
“I had plans to subdivide the land but if the hospital wants it then I think they should have it.
“There are a few things to tidy up but if they all work out I will sell it.”
The latest news follows extensive debate and doubt in the community as to whether land for the new facility would ever be found and agreed on, but Mr Kelly said he had worked tirelessly towards this outcome.
“I made a promise to the people of the Bega Valley to work with (NSW Minister for Health) Carmel Tebbutt and the others involved to make sure this would happen,” he said.
“I have been talking to the department almost daily and now we have got to this stage there a few more steps to go, but we have a site identified.
“This is a great outcome for all concerned and for the Bega Valley in particular.”
Mr Kelly said that once the property deal had been “squared away” the consultants and planners could go ahead with design and costing so that “we know exactly how much it is all going to cost”.
While understanding the process was not 100 per cent complete, Bega Valley Shire mayor Tony Allen said he was “very happy” that the site had been identified and that a deal could be made.
“I must pay tribute to Mike Kelly and the work that he has put in on this,” he said.
“I’d also thank Ray Miller for the way he has conducted negotiations and what he has said today.
“He has been willing to sit down, talk to everyone involved and agree that the hospital can buy the land.
“Once this is all complete we can look forward to having a hospital that will serve the whole of south-east NSW with the very latest in medical facilities.”
12.03pm Saturday 21 August 2010 - ABC News
NSW denies burying latest hospital statistics
The New South Wales Government has rejected claims it is hiding its latest hospital performance figures to prevent any embarrassment for Federal Labor ahead of tomorrow's election.
The State Government regularly releases reports on its public hospitals but the Opposition's health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner says there has been nothing since March.
She suspects the government has held off releasing June figures because it will show lengthening waiting times.
"It's clearly a stunt to avoid real examination of the situation before the federal election," she said.
The Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt says there has been no delay.
"It always takes about two months to collate all of the data," she said.
Ms Tebbutt believes the figures will show improved performance compared with the same period last year because of the 2009 swine flu outbreak.
The Minister says since the March data the government has invested additional money for elective surgery and opened new beds.
Source
5.34pm Thursday 12 August 2010 – SMH
Health system must change: Tebbutt
The NSW health system is unsustainable by any measure, the state's health minister Carmel Tebbutt says.
Changes are needed to make the health system more accessible for all, Ms Tebbutt told a health conference on Thursday.
Healthcare reform is fundamental to the long-term sustainability of the NSW healthcare system, Ms Tebutt added.
"Our vision is for a health system that is accessible, that is safe and compassionate, that has high-quality services and provides them in the most cost-effective way."
Read more
Editor: The vision might be laudable but its implementation is something else. The current model for Local Hospital Networks being touted by the NSW Government is destined for failure. It is a dishonestly named centralized model, standing only as a poorly camaflouaged version of Area Health Services that have been shown to have failed totally since their inception. It is a model by which the NSW Government will be able to rebadge failed Area Health Services and re-employ the thousands of public servants who might otherwise become redundant. It is a lame excuse for a model that gets the community no closer to empowerment in matters critical to its own health. It leaves us in the hands of dictators who employ the wrong logic and put the purse before patient needs.
5.34pm Thursday 12 August 2010 - ABC News - Toni Crisp
Rural health 'buckling under pressure'
An interim report into the state of Australia's rural health system has found it is buckling under the pressure after years of neglect.
The report shows some patients are forced to wait up to six months to see GPs and specialists, some have to travel up to 160 kilometres to see a doctor and 2,000 kilometres to access cancer services.
Read more
10.26 Thursday 12 August 2010 - Warren Advocate
Mayors speak out
Mayors throughout the region are presenting a united front against a proposal that would see a huge area of the Central West become one of the new Local Health Networks.
Read more
2.01pm Wednesday 1 August 2010 - BBPost - Sally Foy
Federal funds finally flow
Less than two weeks out from the election, the federal funding pledges have finally started to flow for Eurobodalla residents.
In Batemans Bay, Liberal candidate David Gazard has promised $10 million to complete the south Batemans Bay link road and its intersection with the Princes Highway.
In Moruya, sitting Labor MP Mike Kelly has pledged $12.3 million for Eurobodalla health services.
The announcements on Monday were the first significant move by either party to fund projects and infrastructure in the shire, which is part of the crucial marginal seat of Eden-Monaro.
State MP Andrew Constance was on the campaign trail with Mr Gazard, who is also offering $3 million funding to Pambula Hospital, $1 million to
Bega Hospital and $6 million for a new Jindabyne Health Service.
Similarly, Dr Kelly was joined by Federal Rural and Regional Minister Warren Snowden.
Also on offer from Labor is a $700 million wind farm near Nimmitabel on the Monaro, $85 million for the Bega bypass, and a further $1 million for projects in and around Bega.
Read more
2.24pm Friday 06 August 2010 - bigpondnews
Abbott announces $85m health fund
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has promised to set up an $85 million health infrastructure fund if the coalition wins government.
Mr Abbott said the fund would help fill gaps in local health services that were 'usually' created by state Labor governments.
'The health infrastructure fund is the kind of fund that I always wished I had had when I was the health minister in government,' he told reporters in Devonport while campaigning in Tasmania on Friday.
The fund's first commitment would be $7 million to a linear accelerator at Burnie Hospital to aid cancer treatment.
Burnie is in the marginal electorate of Braddon, currently held by Labor by 2.3 per cent.
Mr Abbott said his proposed 'community health fund' built on Thursday's announcement that a coalition government would install community boards to run public hospitals.
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2.28pm Friday 06 August 2010 - Bay Post - Sally Foy
Health plan ‘back to the future’
The draft health reform announced yesterday is “back-to-the-future” and scarily similar to the now defunct Southern Area Health Service.
That’s according to Bega MP Andrew Constance, commenting after the State Government announced plans to replace its eight area health services with local health networks.
Batemans Bay and Moruya hospitals will join the Southern NSW Local Health Network with Bega, Bombala, Braidwood, Cooma, Crookwell, Delegate, Goulburn, Pambula, Queanbeyan and Yass.
The State Government says it will decentralise public hospital management and increase local decision-making by putting a chief executive and governing council in charge of each network’s budget and strategic planning.
The Southern NSW Local Health Network is a regional network covering a population under 500,000.
According to the State Government’s discussion paper released yesterday, each network would “ideally” include a principal referral hospital, a clinical school and an Emergency Department with cardiac, stroke, mental health and paediatric services.
However, Bega MP Andrew Constance says the new health model is “back to the future” and vowed to fight it.
He said the new network was made up of the same hospitals that formed the Southern Area Health Service, and more.
“It’s too big. It’s not a local network, it’s an area health service that covers hundreds of kilometres,” he said.
“The Southern Area Health Service was mismanaged by a highly centralised management body ... it was a disaster then and it will be a disaster in the future.”
Instead, Mr Constance wants to re-establish district hospital boards.
He said the difference between the State Government’s back-to-the-future plan and his own was the support of local people.
“They want the system to work and they want local people involved,” he said.
“People want local clinicians and local people making decisions about their local hospital.”
Source
4.25pm Wednesday 04 August 2010 - ABC News
Locals should run hospitals: Libs
The Federal Opposition is warning against a single hospital network in Tasmania.
The State Government is considering 10 models for state hospital management under the Federal Government funding takeover.
Health professionals have been divided over how the state's hospitals should be managed since the changes were announced in April.
There is some support for a local hospital network in each population centre but a single statewide network is also being considered.
The Liberal's Bronwyn Bishop says a proposal for a single hospital network will leave some areas unrepresented.
She says hospitals should be run by locals.
"There's $500 million in the budget to hire more federal public servants in health to administer the networks, and that's why we've said we'll return hospital boards, with clinicians and local people that answer to their communities," she said.
Source
4.20pm Wednesday 04 August 2010 - ABC News
Opposition announces health plans
The Federal Opposition has announced funding commitments for health care facilities on the Monaro and High Country in South East New South Wales.
The Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro, David Gazard, says if elected, the Coalition will spend $1.5m to upgrade Cooma Hospital's Emergency Department.
He says the revamp is essential.
"This will include a paediatric area, and a triage area including a new waiting room facility, that is much needed if you've ever seen the small size of the current waiting room," he said.
"Also, a dedicated mental health room, consultation rooms, a trauma bay, and sterile stock area."
Mr Gazard also visited Jindabyne yesterday to announce plans for a $6m health facility, which will be similar to existing multi-purpose services at Delegate and Bombala.
He says it is a step above Labor's plans for a GP Superclinic.
Read more
11.18am Tuesday 03 August 2010 - Mathaba
Major Parties Ignoring Dental Health Wishes of Australians
Read more
4.31pm Monday 02 August 2010 - ABC News
Greens unveil health policy
Greens Leader Bob Brown has unveiled his party's health policy in Perth.
The policy includes a national dental healthcare scheme to clear the backlog of 500,000 Australians waiting for dental procedures.
It also includes the appointment of a federal minister for mental health and a 1.5 per cent levy on junk food and alcohol advertising.
Senator Brown says the Greens would also ban junk food ads on television until after 9:30pm.
He says polling shows the move would be extremely popular with parents.
Senator Brown yesterday launched the Greens' election campaign in Canberra, along with a national advertising campaign targeting swinging voters.
He called on voters who were frustrated with the major parties to put their trust in the Greens at the upcoming election.
Senator Brown singled out their backing of the $42 billion stimulus package as a significant achievement in the last term of Government.
"We put that package through, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs and thousands of businesses from recession," he said.
Senator Brown said his party supported legalising gay marriage, better treatment of asylum seekers, no nuclear waste dumps, a national recycling program and debate on Australia's Afghanistan troop commitment.
Source
4.43pm Saturday 24July 2010 - Liberal
Nurses Expose Carmel Tebbutt On Labor's Staffing Incompetence
Members at the NSW Nurses Association annual conference have exposed Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt's rank incompetence, questioning her ability to staff beds at Westmead Hospital just a day after her announcement, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.
AAP reports Ms Tebbutt was questioned by a nurse, who asked in regards to Westmead Hospital:
"How can you tell us you're going to maintain safe patient care with the right skill mix and staffing of these 45 new beds when we are unable to maintain the existing beds at the moment?"
Ms Tebbutt's response was the typical NSW Labor excuse:
"There have been significant recruitment and staffing issues in Sydney west."
"Labor's staffing incompetence in hospitals across Western Sydney has been exposed yet again and all Carmel Tebbutt can do is offer up the same tired excuses," Mrs Skinner said.
"If Labor can't recruit nurses to Western Sydney hospitals how do they expect to run the NSW health system?" she asked.
Read more
12.15pm Wednesday 21 July 2010 - Cowra Community News
Nurses push for higher staffing as hospitals ‘run on smell of oily rag’
NURSES are pushing for increased staffing in New South Wales hospitals, particularly in rural areas.
Around 54,000 nurses and midwives are calling on the State Government to follow Victoria’s lead and implement minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
Regional nurses are also looking for a better deal.
More than 440 delegates nurses are attending the three-day 65th annual conference, about half of them from the state’s regional area health services.
Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, are scheduled to address the NSW Nurses’ Association in Sydney today (Wednesday).
The association’s general secretary, Brett Holmes, says both levels of government should be ashamed of the parlous condition of most hospitals in the bush, regional radio reports.
“Our hospitals are asked to run on the smell of an oily rag and it’s time they were properly staffed,” he is quoted.
Read more
11.58am Wednesday 21 July 2010 - ABC News
NSW nurses push for better staffing, conditions
There is a push escalating for the improvement of staffing across New South Wales hospitals, particularly in rural areas.
Around 54,000 nurses and midwives across NSW are calling on the State Government to follow Victoria's lead and implement minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
Regional nurses are also looking for a better deal.
More than 440 delegates are attending the event, with around half of them from the state's regional area health services.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon will address today's conference of the New South Wales Nurses Association in Sydney.
General secretary, Brett Holmes, says both levels of government should be ashamed of the parlous condition of most hospitals in the bush.
"Our hospitals are asked to run on the smell of an oily rag and it's time they were properly staffed," he said.
Mr Holmes says nurses in rural and remote locations are ageing and their numbers are dwindling. He also says they are overworked.
"It's time that they were properly staffed to meet the real issues that they face coming through those emergency doors and being admitted into the health system, and into the community as well," he said.
Mr Holmes says the Victorian Government introduced minimum nurse-to-patient ratios nearly a decade ago and he is calling on the New South Wales government to do the same.
Source
8.42am Wednesday 21 July 2010 - ABC News - Catherine Clifford
Gillard, Roxon lend support to nurses
The Federal Government's heavy hitters are turning out to show their support for nurses and midwives at a conference in Sydney today.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Health Minister Nicola Roxon will address the conference of the New South Wales Nurses Association.
More than 440 delegates representing 54,000 nurses are calling for the implementation of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in NSW.
General secretary Brett Holmes says no real discussion on health reform can occur without appropriate staffing levels.
"This is an important claim to introduce nurse-to-patient ratios here in NSW," he said.
"Victoria has had them since 2001."
Source
3.05pm Tuesday 20 July 2010
Global Telehealth 2010 (GT2010) Telehealth for every nation, community and home.
As we move into the second decade of the 21st century, many health systems are struggling to find solutions to equitable delivery of quality health care. Telehealth is increasingly looked to as a means of facilitating health care delivery, and the telecommunications revolution of the last few years now makes it possible to consider health care delivery on many scales, from the home all the way to global initiatives.
In 2010, Australia will host Global Telehealth 2010 (GT2010), the 15th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH). This meeting has become well established as the major international telehealth conference and will come to Australia for the first time in 2010. Concurrently, the meeting will also be the first annual scientific meeting of the Australasian Telehealth Society, which was founded in 2008.
The conference, to be held in Perth’s unique waterfront community of Fremantle, is expected to attract delegates and speakers from many of the 30 national societies comprising ISfTeH, as well as a large delegation from Australia and New Zealand. Members of telehealth organisations from Asia-Pacific nations should find this meeting particularly attractive. The interdisciplinary nature of the telehealth community attending will ensure wide cross-section of viewpoints. Prominent international speakers will be invited to address the meeting, and papers submitted will be peer-reviewed to maintain the highest standard, with expected publication in a major international journal. The meeting will feature the largest commercial exhibition of telehealth products ever held in Australasia.
Read more
Editor: Compare this with suggestions made on Facebook - The Shape of Hospital Boards - "Patient travel, accommodation and other factors seem to stand in the way of this theory. The Australasian TeleHealth Society is currently finding ways to overcome hurdles of that kind."
2.46pm Tuesday 20 July 2010 - ABC News
Green light for medical video conferencing
The success of a trial of video conferencing at the Bendigo and Echuca hospitals has led to its approval for long term use.
The $10 million program linked local doctors and patients with specialists at four Melbourne hospitals over the past 18 months.
The Loddon Mallee Health Alliance says it resulted in a 10 per cent drop in patient transfers, and increased support for local doctors.
The chief information officer Bruce Winzar says the program results in better patient care.
"Typically telephone conversation is just audio," he said.
"Now what we've been able to do is to enrich that by providing video and other vital signs and images to the specialist who can make a better-informed decision as to whether the patient should be transferred or not."
Read more
Editor: This green light moves us slowly towards the situation described above.
10.05pm Wednesday 7 July 2010 - ABC - Bronwyn Herbert
Overseas doctors cash in on rural shortage
The shortage of doctors in rural Australia is so acute that locum doctors from New Zealand are being flown across the Tasman to work in hospital emergency rooms, at times, just for a weekend's work.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon today released a four year time line for the introduction of the Government's national reform program, including local area networks to coordinate hospital and GP services.
In the meantime to help ease the shortage of doctors in rural and regional areas, the Federal Government has been offering relocation payments of up to $120,000 and other incentives to encourage doctors to leave the cities.
Despite this, hospitals are still being forced in the bush to employ locum doctors to fill the gaps, paying them up to three times the salary of a regular doctor. The shortage is so acute that locum doctors from New Zealand are being flown across the Tasman to work in hospital emergency rooms, at times just for a weekend's work.
Read more
2.17pm Tuesday 6 July 2010 – SMH - Vincent Morello
Tebbutt denies health pact is a 'sham'
NSW Acting Premier and Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt has rejected opposition claims an agreement between state and federal governments on health reform is a sham and won't deliver improved public hospital services.
The state opposition on Thursday leaked a draft agreement on the proposed national health and hospital network developed at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in April.
Under one section, the document says: "The Parties do not intend any of the provisions of this Agreement to be legally enforceable."
Shadow health minister Jillian Skinner said this showed states like NSW can't be compelled to improve services for patients under the reforms, which will give the states a massive injection of funding for health in return for a third of their GST revenues.
"The Keneally Labor government has no incentive to improve patient care because they are not legally bound to do so - this clause is a get out of jail free card," Mrs Skinner said.
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10.07pm Friday 02 July 2010 - The Australian - Adam Cresswell
Rural incentives for doctors 'ridiculous'
Rural doctors have attacked Canberra's scheme paying up to $120,000 to tempt GPs to move to country towns.
These doctors say the rules are "ridiculous" and give doctors the same amount for moving to Hobart as to the tiny NSW town of Tumut.
Read more
6.12pm Thursday 01 July 2010 - ABC News
Doctors could receive $120k to go bush
City doctors will be offered up to $120,000 in relocation payments under a new scheme to attract them to regional and remote areas.
Changes to be rolled out from today under the Federal Government's Rural Health Workforce Strategy include fast-tracking for overseas-trained doctors and medical students with a HECS debt who choose to work in the bush.
Minister for Rural and Regional Health Warren Snowdon says he is confident the incentives will help relieve the doctor shortage in isolated areas.
"The package will make 2,400 doctors around Australia and 500 communities eligible for relocation and retention payments," he said.
"The payment system works on the more remote you go the greater the payment.
"If we've got a doctor who relocates from Adelaide to Alice Springs, that doctor will be eligible for a relocation grant of $60,000."
Dr Peter Beaumont, a former president of the Australian Medical Association's Northern Territory branch, says the incentives are welcome.
"I hope it really goes well, a long way to address the shortage of doctors in the Top End," he said.
"We doctors and certainly the patients are sick of having to not have enough people up there and I think this morning will go a long way to addressing the situation."
Source
6.12pm Thursday 01 July 2010 - ABC News
New policy aims to curb caesarean births
The New South Wales Government is trying to curb the high rate of caesarean births, now performed in almost one-third of all births in the state.
The number of caesarean sections increased by 10 per cent in the eight years to 2006 and the Government has released a new Maternity Services Policy in response.
Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt says the policy contains a number of measures to be implemented over the next five years, which aim to better support pregnant women.
"Most important I guess is making sure that pregnant women are well informed about the benefits of normal birth, about the fact that they promote normal birth, that there's good consultation and good information for pregnant women," she said.
Source
5.13pm Friday 25 June 2010 - NineMSN
E-health records closer to reality
Every Australian will be given an individual healthcare identification number from next week after the federal parliament passed legislation giving the scheme the green light.
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5.11pm Friday 25 June 2010 – SMH - Louise Hall
Cash injection fails to cut wait for operations
Hospitals in NSW have performed 2304 fewer elective operations than last year despite an injection of $122 million over four years in federal funds to cut waiting lists, a leaked report shows.
The monthly Surgical Services Taskforce report also reveals that more than 2000 patients have waited longer for operations than the recommended time set by their doctors.
The proportion of elective procedures cancelled on the day of surgery has risen to 4.3 per cent, more than double NSW Health's benchmark of 2 per cent.
Read more
2.36pm Friday 18 June 2010 - Coffs Coast Advocate.
Local doctors left out
Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker has cast doubt on the expectation that North Coast doctors and nurses will be allowed to play a key role in the Federal Government’s new hospital networks.
The Federal MP said State bureaucrats will retain their grip on the ailing health system.
Read more
Editor: Luke Hartsuyker's dire predictions will likely impact on all rural NSW communities.
5.18pm Monday 07 June - isria.com
Australia - Prime Minister Keynote address to the Health Services Union of Australia annual convention Sydney Convention Centre Darling Harbour, 7 June 2010
Extract
Now let's imagine one other person: Walter, a 53-year-old farmer in northern New South Wales.
A regular checkup with his GP has discovered a suspect mole on his back. The mole turns out to be cancer, and a nasty one. It's a diagnosis which turns his life upside down, but instead of having to go to Brisbane or Sydney for treatment, he is referred to Lismore - to the North Coast Cancer Institute Regional Cancer Centre at Lismore Base Hospital.
He'll be able to stay at Our House, the new 20-unit cancer patient and carer accommodation facility. Because the diagnosis has been made early, and he hasn't had to wait months before he can arrange getting to a major city, he now has a better chance of beating cancer, because one of the awful things about cancer - an awful disease - is that Australians living in rural and regional areas are three times more likely to die from some cancers than their counterparts in major cities. That's why we are investing in 20 regional cancer care projects around the country.
If complexities emerge, Walter is able to access a world class cancer institute in Sydney, the Chris O'Brien Cancer Centre, where treatment and research come together under the same roof. It is part of our National Plan for Better Cancer Care, backed by more than AUD 2.3 billion in funding since the Labor Government came to office in 2007.
It's at all these times - when your child has a serious rash, when you are battling with a long-term illness, when you need surgery to restore your mobility and when you suspect you might have a very serious disease - that Australians turn to their health and hospitals system. That's when better hospitals and better healthcare really make a difference and that's when the Government's health reforms will really make a difference in the lives of Australian families and these changes will support the critical role of the health workforce in our health and hospitals system.
While the Local Hospital Networks will assume responsibility for the day to day operations of their services, it is not the Government's intention to change existing employment arrangements, including the Crown employment arrangement in NSW. States will continue to have responsibility for overall industrial relations policy, including the conduct of enterprise bargaining and the setting of broad IR policies such as union consultation. It is the Government's clear intention that existing wages and conditions will be maintained in the introduction of Local Hospital Networks and any future changes would only occur through the usual negotiating processes applying in each state.
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5.42pm Saturday 05 June 2010 - Coffs Coast Advocate - Graeme Singleton
Bellinger hospital service to stay
The future of overnight accident and emergency services at the Bellinger River District Hospital seems certain.
After a determined grass-roots campaign, the North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) has handed the Bellinger Health Action Group ( BHAG) a major victory.
NCAHS chief executive Chris Crawford said the current overnight A & E service was safe for the foreseeable future.
“I can say that it is most unlikely that it won’t continue to be a 24-hour emergency department,” Mr Crawford said.
“Because of the proposed Federal health reforms, the NSW Health Department is now taking the attitude to maintain the status quo, and in this case that means keeping the emergency department at the Bellinger River District Hospital open throughout the night,” he said.
“No formal or final decision has been taken to close it so the service will continue as it is at the hospital.”
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Editor: Congratuations BHAG. Keep up the good work.
4.44pm Friday 04 June 2010 - HeradlSun - Andrew Bolt
NSW Health bureaucrats have spent $22.7 million on first and business class airfares
NSW Health bureaucrats have spent $22.7 million on first and business class airfares in the past two years as businesses waited for hospitals to pay their bills.
The Daily Telegraph has uncovered a whopping $114 million spent on airfares for NSW public servants - including $27 million on first-class and business-class flights overseas…
Documents released under freedom of information laws reveal that all but $4.3 million of the total overseas first and business class fares was spent by NSW Health and its area health services…
The highest spenders on international first class/business class airfares were the Sydney South West Area Health Service ($6.35 million in the two years), South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service ($4.76 million) and North Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service ($4.35 million).
In the same period as the heavy spending on international travel (in 2007-08 and 2008-09), more than 70 per cent of invoices were not being paid by area health services in the required 45 days.
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4.42pm Friday 04 June 2010 - news.com.au - Andrew Clennell and Gemma Jones
$22 million for airfares but bills not paid
NSW Health bureaucrats have spent $22.7 million on first and business class airfares in the past two years as businesses waited for hospitals to pay their bills.
The Daily Telegraph has uncovered a whopping $114 million spent on airfares for NSW public servants - including $27 million on first-class and business-class flights overseas.
The health bureaucracy are the biggest spenders at a time when it has faced stinging criticism over failing to pay hospital bills - often to small businesses - on time.
Documents released under freedom of information laws reveal that all but $4.3 million of the total overseas first and business class fares was spent by NSW Health and its area health services.
Read more
4.40pm Friday 04 June 2010 - news.com.au
Long wait for NSW hospital bed
Almost 10,000 patients admitted to NSW hospital emergency departments waited for more than eight hours for a bed in March alone, the Opposition says.
Figures on NSW Health's website show 9824 patients, or an average 27 per cent of those admitted to public hospital emergency departments in March, waited for longer than eight hours for a bed.
The delays are a result of Labor slashing the number of hospital beds across NSW, Opposition Health Minister Jillian Skinner says.
"When Labor came to power in 1995, according to NSW Health annual reports, there were 23,910 hospital beds in the state," she said yesterday.
In 2009 the figure dropped to 22,311, but is misleading because it includes 1000 cots and basinets, which the Labor Government began counting in 2002, Ms Skinner says.
"Meaning NSW actually has 2599 fewer hospital beds now than in 1995," she said.
"At the same time the NSW population has grown by 1 million people.
"Despite having an extra million residents in NSW, thanks to Labor's cuts, we have fewer hospital beds than we did 15 years ago - it speaks volumes about Labor's incompetence."
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4.38pm Friday 04 June 2010 - SMH - Amy Corderoy
Local doctors sidelined in hospital reform plans
Local clinicians may be locked out of running the hospitals where they work because of a political compromise which doctors say undermines a key element of federal health reform.
After promising local doctors and nurses would be "empowered" to run local hospitals, the state and federal governments have signed up to a clause suggesting doctors should be excluded from the governance of their own hospitals.
Exclusion of doctors from health service planning has been a flashpoint in NSW. Peter Garling's 2008 review of the state's hospitals called it an"impediment to good, safe care".
Ian Chaussivert, chairman of the Wyong Hospital medical staff council, said: "There will be blood on the walls if that clause [in the COAG agreement] is not removed.''
Read more
6.04pm Monday 31 May 2010 - ABC News
Health shake-up to involve 'listening tour'
There is to be a health 'listening tour' across New South Wales north coast and the entire state.
It is ahead of final decisions about new local hospital network boundaries and how hospitals are grouped.
The chief executives of the current area health services were briefed last week on some of the changes ahead.
Under the new federal health reforms, area health services are to be replaced with local networks.
North Coast Area Health chief executive Chris Crawford says there is to be widespread community consultation in the coming months.
"To hear the views of the communities and clinicians as to how these hospital networks should best be set up," he said.
"That's great because it's very important that the community and the clinicians have a good [insight] into this new hospital network system which will be replacing the area health services."
Mr Crawford says a series of consultations will be held in the next few weeks in the region's major centres.
"The North Coast Area Health Service will certainly have a number of the listening sessions," he said.
"So that clinicians and community can provide input into how the new hospital network system will operate and which hospitals should be grouped with which other hospitals.
"As I understand it the sessions on the north coast will be held in the second half on June."
Source
Editor: Chris Crawford needs to display his definition of "community consultation". It should be hoped that it differs from the exclusive definition employed in the past be GSAHS.
8.55pm Thursday 27 May 2010 - ABC News
Fraser demands stop to health service job cuts
A New South Wales mid-north coast MP is calling on the state and federal governments to stop cutting North Coast Area Health Service jobs.
Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser says 80 more positions are set to go from the Coffs Harbour Health Campus.
He says it is part of a previously announced government plan to shed 420 positions across the area health service.
Mr Fraser says the cutbacks are going ahead at a time when research show hospital waiting lists are continuing to grow.
Read more
8.53pm Thursday 27 May 2010 - ABC News
Aged care funding for Eden-Monaro
The Federal Member for Eden-Monaro, Mike Kelly, says a boost in funding will improve training for aged care workers in South East New South Wales.
The Government says it has committed $187 000 to Eden-Monaro, to train more workers.
The funding is part of the Government's multi-million dollar investment in increasing the skills of workers at a national level.
Read more
8.51pm Thursday 27 May 2010 – Business Spectator
O'Farrell urges voters to punish Labor for health care
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell says Penrith voters should punish the state government for inadequate hospital services in the upcoming by-election.
Mr O'Farrell said on Wednesday waiting lists at Nepean Hospital in the western Sydney electorate, previously held by disgraced Labor MP Karyn Paluzzano, had blown out.
"This is a state government elected 15 years ago to halve hospital waiting lists," he told reporters in Penrith.
"Yet here at Nepean we now have the longest waiting lists ever, which means not only extra pressure and stress on the staff working in that hospital but also concerns within the local community about their capacity to get access."
He said voters had an opportunity to send the "strongest possible message" to the government to "get it's act together about managing health services across this state" at the poll on June 19.
"It's time for the Keneally government to get serious about health and these figures prove it."
Read more
5.30pm Wednesday 26 May 1020 - Daily Telgraph - Andrew Clennell and Gemma Jones
22 million for airfares but bills not paid
NSW Health bureaucrats have spent $22.7 million on first and business class airfares in the past two years as businesses waited for hospitals to pay their bills.
The Daily Telegraph has uncovered a whopping $114 million spent on airfares for NSW public servants - including $27 million on first-class and business-class flights overseas.
The health bureaucracy are the biggest spenders at a time when it has faced stinging criticism over failing to pay hospital bills - often to small businesses - on time.
Read more
5.29pm Wednesday 26 May 1020 - ABC News
Doctors told to downgrade to business class
The New South Wales Health Minister is asking specialist doctors to limit their travel to business and economy class after this morning defending the amount the Health Department spends on air fares.
About $22 million was spent on international travel in 2008 and 2009 and Carmel Tebbutt says the majority of that spending was for specialist doctors.
Read more
5.27pm Wednesday 26 May 1020 - The Australian - Ken Baxter
Bloated bureaucracies bad for health
You find them here, you find them there, you find them everywhere: the bureaucrats of the Australian health system.
The commonwealth definitely has 4400 of them, NSW probably has 30,000 of them and the other states and territories have lesser numbers. In total there are probably about 75,000 in the public hospitals and health system.
As C. J. Dennis observed in The Glugs of Gosh: In every office, on every floor / Are Swanks, and Swanks distracting Swanks, / And Acting Swanks a score, / And coldly distant, sub-assistant / Under Swanks galore
They are omnipresent and a necessary part of making things happen. Sometimes they are necessary to ensure things do not happen.
They range from the clerical staff who check you in to any public hospital, they are the specialists' personal assistants and they support the research work done in large teaching hospitals.
Read more
5.23pm Wednesday 26 May 1020 - SMH - Louise Hall State Politics
Funding fails to cut surgery list
The number of people waiting for elective surgery in NSW has risen by more than 4500, despite the allocation of $38 million in federal funds to cut waiting lists.
A record 67,478 patients were waiting for non-urgent surgery at the end of March, including 1762 who had waited more than a year, the latest quarterly hospital statistics show.
The waiting list increased by more than 7 per cent compared with the March quarter last year and was almost 15 per cent longer than in March 2008.
The proportion of patients who underwent surgery within the benchmark time dropped from 90 per cent to 87 per cent.
The Minister for Health, Carmel Tebbutt, said hospitals had received an extra $15 million in elective surgery funding during the quarter and the fall in meeting the benchmark time was ''due to the focus on arranging surgery for patients waiting longer than benchmark time''.
The opposition spokeswoman for health, Jillian Skinner, said the figures did not include patients who had been waiting longer than 12 months, meaning the true number of untreated patients was unknown.
According to the data, Springwood Hospital had no patients on the ophthamology list, but two patients, Sharon Crufurd and Mark Hudson, were told this week that they would not receive a cataract operation at the hospital for 12 months.
Read more
6.26pm Friday 14 May 2010 - Daily Telegraph - Kate Sikora
Rural towns will miss out on GP hotline help
A large chunk of NSW will not benefit from the 24-hour "dial a doctor" hotline the Federal Government has hailed as a way to unclog hospital emergency departments.
With 192 GP vacancies in rural NSW and at least three country towns without a doctor at any given time, families will still need to travel hundreds of kilometres - usually to a hospital - to access an on-call doctor.
It will be families in Sydney and major regional centres who will reap the benefits of the hotline.
It's just another example of rural towns missing out on what city folk take for granted.
Read more
3.21pm Wednesday 12 MAY 2010 – ABC News
Health service denies nursing home sale claims
The Greater Southern Area Health Service has rejected a claim that it is pushing the sale of a Leeton Nursing Home because it will benefit financially.
The Carramar Carers Group at Leeton says Leeton hospital services would be at risk if the nursing home is privatised.
Its spokesman, Neil Boardman, says like Holbrook residents, it believes the sale will jeopardise employment and services at Leeton District Hospital.
Read more
Editor: Don't trust the GSAHS rejection Neil.
3.31pm Wednesday 12 MAY 2010 – ninemsn
Doctors' practices to get nurses
Every doctor's practice in the country will get its own nurse to treat patients and co-ordinate follow-up care under revolutionary new measures in the federal budget.
Each GP will be eligible for $25,000, worth up to $75,000 a year to a three-doctor practice, enough to hire a full-time nurse to write prescriptions, make home visits and teach patients to manage their illnesses, News Ltd reported on Monday.
The care they provide is expected to come at no cost to the patients and it will free up GPs to carry out the more complex medical care.
Read more
3.29pm Wednesday 12 MAY 2010 – thegovmonitor
Victoria Locks In Funding For Country Hospitals
The Victorian Government has reassured 44 smaller country hospitals their funding will be protected under the health agreement signed at COAG this week.
Health Minister Daniel Andrews wrote on Wednesday to the board chairs of the relevant regional health services, which are spread across the state, to inform them that the Brumby Government had secured commitments from the Commonwealth about their future funding.
“The Brumby Labor Government has always backed country health services with record support and we argued their case nationally during the recent debate on important health reforms,” Mr Andrews said.
“Although activity-based funding was introduced in Victoria many years ago, it was our Government which recognised the unique needs of dozens of smaller regional health services and introduced block funding arrangements so they could properly look after the needs of their local communities.
“I’m pleased that Premier Brumby and I have been able to secure commitments from the Commonwealth that these arrangements will be protected under the deal signed this week.
”Mr Andrews said the national health agreement built on the existing strengths of the Victorian system, and would deliver more than $1 billion in extra beds and services to patients over the next four years.
“Every doctor and nurse in Victoria should be proud that their efforts have been recognised and their innovation adopted nationally,” he said.
“Our Government has worked hard to secure additional funding support immediately while guaranteeing long-term investment from the Commonwealth that will benefit all Victorians in the future.”
Source
2.31pm Thursday 22 April – The Australian - Sid Maher
Health activity plan at a quarter of hospitals
Kevin Rudd has revealed as few as 165 out of the nation's 764 hospitals will be converted to the activity-based funding model he championed as a key driver of a more efficient health service.
The remainder, mainly smaller regional and rural hospitals, could remain on block funding, sparking warnings money could be siphoned off by state bureaucrats.
Opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton claimed it would mean "business as usual", showing Mr Rudd's claims of sweeping reform were a "giant con".
"The states will continue to dictate outcomes and that was not what Mr Rudd promised," he said.
Read more
2.29pm Thursday 22 April – The Australian
Rampant bureaucracy `disaster' in waiting
Bob Wells, director of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute at the Australian National University, branded the agreement a "disaster" that would see a proliferation of new federal agencies -- without achieving the key aims set out in the initial reform blueprint.
Mr Wells said the revised plan had been heavily watered down, was hospital-centric and included "rampant" bureaucracy involving "bodies reporting to bodies reporting to other bodies".
"I think it's a disaster . . . it doesn't achieve Rudd's original objective, which was for the commonwealth to have the major say in how the hospitals are run," Mr Wells said. "Rudd's plan was for national funding, local control -- I don't see any local control in this."
Read more
2.27pm Thursday 22 April – The Australian
Rifts open in Kevin Rudd's health plan
AMA national president Andrew Pesce, appearing unconvinced on the fine detail, yesterday gave the plan guarded support.
"There is still a concern . . . that state bureaucracies could seek to control local hospital networks," Dr Pesce said. "This would work against the spirit and intent of the COAG agreement and must not be allowed to happen."
Read more
2.25pm Thursday 22 April – Daily Advertiser – Ben Higgins
Patients want to see an immediate impact
NSW health minister Carmel Tebbutt said yesterday there would be block funding for smaller hospitals to ensure services were maintained.
"Regional and rural hospitals will be safe, there will be block funding under the new plan with base hospitals to receive a mix of block funding and activity-based funding," she said.
Chairman of the WBH Medical Staff Council Richard Harrison said local district boards were a much better alternative to the area health services.
"No question they would run better (district boards), they are a strong positive of the plan and will provide better management and health outcomes," he said.
Read more
2.23pm Thursday 22 April – ABC News
Tebbut applauds federal-state health deal
New South Wales Health Minister Carmel Tebbut says Illawarra hospitals will be better off under a deal delivered between the states and territories with the Commonwealth.
As part of the deal struck with the federal and state governments, except Western Australia, 90 Local Health Networks will be established nationally.
NSW has eight area health services managing more than 220 public hospitals.
Ms Tebbut says hospitals in regional and rural areas will be protected through block funding.
"Hospitals in our rural and regional areas across the state that would not be able to operate according to an activity-based funding model will still be protected," she said.
"We'll work through the details of that with the Commonwealth over the next period of time but we also know the funding is going to mean some 11,000 extra elective surgery procedures across NSW."
It is likely the South-Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service will be broken up into smaller regional units over coming years as a result of the health plan signed in Canberra this week.
Local Health Networks will be established, with the northern Illawarra around Wollongong possibly making up one network, and the southern Illawarra around Nowra making up another.
Ms Tebbut says there is still some work to do on the plans.
"One of the changes that was negotiated with NSW input over the two days at COAG [Council of Australian Governments] was that the number of local health networks will be approximately 90 across Australia so we will now need to look at what that means for NSW," she said.
Source
2.23pm Thursday 22 April – 7.30 Report
Abbott on health plan
KERRY O'BRIEN: But isn't it also true that to push through the kind of change that the Australian public says it wants, you can argue about what this delivers or doesn't deliver, but this is a plan Kevin Rudd says is in response to a public desire for urgent action on hospitals and in doing so he's had to be tough with the states but the states have now come on board all bar one? So hasn't that been a victory of sorts?
TONY ABBOTT: Except, Kerry, he has not delivered what just six days ago he said he was gonna deliver. He said it was gonna be nationally funded and locally run. Well, it's gonna go through these state funding pools and exactly the shape of these local hospital networks will depend upon decisions made by the State Government. It looks like only 160 hospitals are actually going to be funded on an activity basis and it now looks like these local hospital networks don't have to be nearly as local as was once thought. They're gonna be more like regional health networks, and here in NSW we know how disastrous regional networks can be.
KERRY O'BRIEN: But hasn't he said specifically that these local health networks are going to be significantly smaller than the current regional health networks of the kind you've talked about? And you know the reason he has distinguished between the major city hospitals and rural and regional hospitals is because of the risk that under the activities-based funding, some of them might be forced to close.
TONY ABBOTT: But it will be up to the states to determine what these local hospital networks are, who's in them, what powers they'll have, who'll be running the local hospital networks. And I don't think most clinicians in NSW at least there's much confidence that the State Government will get it right.
(part of transcript here only) Read more
5.38pm Friday 16 April 2010 - Alex Easton
Major upgrade for hospital stalled
A major upgrade to Lismore Base Hospital’s emergency department and wards appears to have fallen off the State Government’s radar, a letter from a government parliamentary secretary to Lismore MP Thomas George reveals.
The upgrade is the third and most complex stage of the Lismore Base Hospital redevelopment.
The new Richmond Clinic psychiatric unit was the first stage of the redevelopment, while the new cancer careunit, which is due to open next month, is the second.
However, costings for stage three of the redevelopment remain vague, with Mr George saying he had been quoted figures by the Government ranging between $100 million and $150 million.
A spokesman for Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt yesterday was unable to answer questions about the State Government’s plans for the stage three upgrade.
Read more
Editor: The truth is probably that Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt's minders will not allow her to say anything about anything.
3.34pm Friday 16 April 2010 - NineMSN
PM says he's resolute on health reforms
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is holding firm on his decision not to write "blank cheques" for state and territory health ministers ahead of a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on April 19.
While Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania are backing the prime minister's $50 billion health plan, senior NSW clinicians have recommended NSW Premier Kristina Keneally reject it.
Ms Keneally says she is prepared to negotiate at Monday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting of premiers and the prime minister.
Read more
3.32pm Friday 16 April 2010 – ABC News
Keneally stops short of backing health plan
New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally says she cannot support the Federal Government's health overhaul in its current form.
Her resistance puts Prime Minister Kevin Rudd no closer to a deal on his hospital takeover plan just days before Monday's Coalition of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.
Ms Keneally says she supports 90 per cent of the plan but will not sign up to a deal that disadvantages New South Wales.
She says NSW is happy to dedicate 30 per cent of GST revenue for health, but the State Government is not prepared to hand it over to Commonwealth.
Read more
3.32pm Friday 16 April 2010 – ABC News
State MP slams ACT health spending
A State MP in the New South Wales south east says the Government should invest in local health facilities rather than send money to the ACT.
The comments come after ACT Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, revealed that New South Wales owes more than $30m dollars for sending its patients to Canberra hospitals.
The State's Health Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, says an independent audit is being carried out into the payments.
The Opposition's Member for Bega, Andrew Constance, says the debt shows the region is over-relying on Canberra facilities.
Read more
3.28pm Friday 16 April 2010 – Canberra Times – Danielle Cronin
NSW holds out on $30m owed
The ACT must be compensated for the ''real and entire'' cost of treating NSW residents in Canberra's public hospitals but the NSW Government was being ''hard-headed''.
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope made the complaint yesterday after The Canberra Times revealed NSW had about $31million in ''outstanding debt'' for treatment of its residents in Canberra's public hospitals, according to ACT estimates.
Read more
3.26pm Friday 16 April 2010 – Manly Daily
Meeting of worthies who demand action on Mona Vale Hospital
Will the meeting do anything for the hospital and the people who need it?
A group of Pittwater community leaders met yesterday to call for the immediate completion of works at Mona Vale Hospital’s maternity ward and the return of maternity services to the hospital.
Mackellar Federal Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop, Pittwater State Liberal MP Rob Stokes, Pittwater mayor Harvey Rose, chair of Save Mona Vale Hospital committee Eunice Raymond and chair of the hospital’s medical staff council Stuart Pincott met to demand the State Government honour its commitment to return the maternity service quickly.
The maternity ward was relocated to Manly Hospital last July so asbestos removal work could be carried out.
Initially, the area health service would not confirm maternity services would ever return to Mona Vale, but after public pressure it announced the ward would return in June.
However, almost two weeks ago Northern Beaches Health Service general manager Frank Bazik said the hospital had run out of money for the asbestos work and needed another $400,000.
Read more
and more
8.26am Friday 16 Apil 2010
PM’s health plan looks a bit sick
(Letter published in AFR, 15 April)
As with climate change, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has locked himself into a view that it is in the national interest for the federal government to intervene in the operation of public health policies now mostly being run by states. As Victorian Premier John Brumby has pointed out, this involves riding roughshod over the states, even threatening a referendum (“Victoria airs its main issues in Canberra”14 April).
But while health reform is needed, it is hard to believe the electorate sees this coming via a bigger federal role. The recent total failures of federal intervention in education and insulation, amongst numerous others, must surely mean voters doubt the feds can implement better policies.
Relevant is whether the bribes of additional federal money would result in additional total spending on public health. If, after additional money is provided by the federal government, the states made offsetting reductions in their own funding of health, there would be no additional increase in total funding of public health.
To justify the provision of additional federal funding, the states would thus have to be required to fund pre-determined levels of spending that would add to total public health funding. Unless Mr Rudd can assure voters of this, the whole scheme will be another federal failure.
Des Moore
Former OIC federal/state relations
Australian Treasury, South Yarra.
Source
Keep an eye on the missing link
(Letter published in Herald Sun, April 14)
On April 11, Prime Minister Rudd’s latest health offer was to spend $500 million on emergency department access to state’s public hospitals, the target being to reduce average waiting times to four hours.
While this offer is contingent on the states agreeing to a new National Health and Hospitals network, there seems an important missing link.
So far, it has not been indicated what happens if, as hospitals receive additional grants from the Commonwealth, the states make offsetting reductions in their own funding of emergency departments or indeed hospitals generally.
Is Mr Rudd making an offer that, if accepted, will not necessarily increase total hospitals’ funding ? If not, what levels of spending will the states be required to meet?
Des Moore, former OIC federal/state relations,
Australian Treasury
8.50pm Wednesday 14 April 2010
Here’s How the Bureaucrats Do It
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8.45pm Wednesday 14 April 2010 - Eden Magnet
Constance: Doctor crisis must end
Member for Bega Andrew Constance has called on the NSW Labor Health Minister Carmel Tebutt and Greater Southern Area Health Service to address the doctors crisis facing maternity services in the Bega Valley Shire.
For four months there has been no appointment of a local GP obstetrician to deliver at Bega Hospital and the reliance has been on locum doctors at what Mr Constance calls enormous expense to the taxpayer.
“It’s now been four months since we have had any local GP obstetrician delivering babies in Bega Hospital,” said Mr Constance.
“It is outrageous to think that over the past 15 months we have gone from six local GP obstetricians to none in the Bega Valley Shire and are now completely reliant on locums who fly in and fly out to deliver babies,” he said.
“There is no continuity of care for expectant mums and the cost of this whole exercise is astronomical.
Read more
8.40pm Wednesday 14 April 2010 - ABC News
Claim: Bega Valley locums cost big dollars
The New South Wales Opposition says a lack of local GP obstetricians in the Bega Valley in the state's South East is costing the taxpayer thousands of dollars.
The Member for Bega, Andrew Constance, says Bega Hospital relies entirely on locum doctors to deliver babies, and he says each doctor brought in costs an enormous amount.
Mr Constance says in the past 15 months the Shire has lost six local GP obstetricians, and there is no longer a continuity of care for expectant mothers.
Read more
4.24pm Monday 10 April 2010 - ABC News - Updated 12 minutes ago
Rudd to give final answer on health plan
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the states and territories will receive a copy of his complete health funding plan later today.
The move comes after the New South Wales Government gave him a deadline of Wednesday to reveal the entire plan.
Mr Rudd has released parts of his health funding plan in dribs and drabs over the past six weeks ahead of next Monday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.
Read more
5.15pm Friday 09 April 2010 - Daily Advertiser - Stephanie Muir
Patient assist program divides regional towns
Mere kilometres are dividing the close-knit town of Narrandera down the middle, cutting furious residents out of valuable health funding.
The Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS) has continued to segregate Narrandera despite the best efforts and continued campaigning of Member for Murrumbidgee Adrian Piccoli.
Read of this ridiculous situation. Consider Carmel Tebbutt's capacity for humane intervention. Her inability to think outside the square demands that patients lie about their address.
5.15pm Friday 09 April 2010 - Port Macquarie News
Minister says hospital's still on waiting list
A New wing at Port Macquarie Base Hospital remains little more than a pipedream.
NSW Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt yesterday refused to be drawn on whether a major expansion of the hospital would be commissioned in the foreseeable future.
Ms Tebbutt said the government would continue to “look closely” at the issue of a so-called “fourth pod” at the hospital.
But she stressed there were many other demands on the state’s health budget.
Read more. What hope do we have for a new hospital in Bega? That project is not even within the state's current health budget.
8.58am Friday 09 April 2010 - ABC News - Simon Cullen
Roxon dismisses Brumby's health plan
The Federal Government says it cannot agree to some of Victoria's demands for changes to the Commonweath's health plan.
Read more
8.55am Friday 09 April 2010 - ABC News - Ryan Sheales
Brumby unveils alternative health plan
The Victorian Government has released an alternative to the Commonwealth's planned health changes.
The Putting Patients First plan proposes an increase in Commonwealth health funding to be distributed by the states.
Hospitals would then give performance reports to both the federal and relevant state governments.
Read more
8.48am Thursday 08 April 2010 - heraldsun
Australian Medical Association Victoria urges John Brumby to stand firm on health against Kevin Rudd
The Victorian branch of the AMA has written to Premier John Brumby, urging him to continue his resistance of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's hospital reforms.
AMA Victoria president Harry Hemley says Mr Rudd's National Health and Hospitals Network proposal raises many unanswered questions and would not provide better health care for the state.
Dr Hemley fears Victorian patients and taxpayers will be disadvantaged by Mr Rudd's plan to take majority control of public hospital funding because the state has the most efficient health system in the country.
He says, under the plan, in 2011-12 the proposed transitional arrangements mean Victorian hospitals would receive $1.5 billion less than NSW because Victoria is more efficient.
"We recommend you ask the commonwealth give Victoria an additional $1.5 billion over two years to address some of our capital needs," he wrote in his letter to Mr Brumby.
Read more
8.40am Thursday 08 April 2010 – ABC News
WA closer to signing federal health agreement
WA Premier Colin Barnett says he is closer to reaching an agreement with the Federal Government on its health package.
Read more
8.35am Thursday 08 April 2010 – ABC News
Health plan doesn't address aged care: Greens
The Greens say states should not sign up to the Commonwealth's health plan until they know what is on offer for the aged care sector.
Read more
8.25am Thursday 08 April 2010 – New Matilda - Hamish Quinn
Rudd Now Spoiling For A Fight
Beating up on the states is smart politics for Kevin Rudd right now, writes Hamish Quinn, and his threat of a referendum on health kills a flock of birds with one stone
Read more - This is a good one
8.10am Thursday 08 April 2010 – NSW Nurses Assn
Rudd's Big Bang Hospital Reform
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd meets with ANF Federal and State leaders to discuss his plans for health reform.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd meets with ANF Federal and State leaders to discuss his plans for health reform.
Kevin Rudd says his health reform package is bigger than the introduction of Medicare as he commits to taking on the dominant funding role for the entire national public hospital system.
Kevin Rudd has announced a National Health Reform Plan that will see the Federal Government become the majority funder of public hospitals.
The Key Aspects Of The Reform Are:
- The Commonwealth will lift its share of public hospital funding from 35% to 60%;
- It will meet 100% of all GP and primary care services;
- The states will now only have to pay 40% of their health budgets;
- The funding changes involve the states surrendering 30% of their GST revenue. The Federal Government would put this into a National Hospital Fund for new hospital networks that would replace the area health services.
An important read
4.24pm Tuesday 06 April 2010 - WAToday - Isabel Hayes
NSW, Qld willing to reach health deal
The premiers of NSW and Queensland say they are willing to work towards an agreement on hospital funding, as the federal government ramps up the pressure on the states to seal a deal this month.
Read more
4.20pm Tuesday 06 April 2010 - The Australian - Patricia Karvelas and Lauren Wilson
John Brumby spurns bully tactics on healthcare
Victorian Premier John Brumby says he will not be bullied into signing a bad deal on healthcare funding under the threat of a referendum from Kevin Rudd, but other premiers say a health deal will be struck without acrimony.
Read more
4.15pm Tuesday 06 April 2010 - ABC News
Rudd threatens referendum in health push
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is considering recalling Parliament in a bid to have a referendum on his health and hospital reforms.
Mr Rudd will ask state and territory premiers and chief ministers to back his health plan at a COAG meeting in a fortnight.
His spokesman has confirmed that the meeting could run for days if there is no agreement on the first day.
And Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the Government is prepared to call a referendum if it fails to secure agreement during the talks.
Read more
4.10pm Tuesday 06 April 2010 - ABC News
Liberal leader to be briefed on health and hospital plans
The Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the Federal Government will do its best to brief the Liberal leader Will Hodgman on the proposed shake-up of the health system.
The government is threatening to begin the process for a referendum on the changes if no agreement can be struck with the States at a meeting within a fortnight.
Mr Hodgman could become Tasmania's next premier on Wednesday when Labor attempts to give up power.
Ms Roxon says she wants to make sure the Liberal leader's properly briefed about the health proposal as early as possible.
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5.07pm Tuesday 30 March - National Party - Source, Senator Fiona Nash
Rudd admits NSW hospitals in danger under Labor's plan
First Prime Minister Kevin Rudd denied it, now he admits that more than 100 New South Wales hospitals and regional health facilities are in danger from his governments health reform plans, said Nationals NSW Senator Fiona Nash.
Yesterdays admission by the Prime Minister that Labor needs to underpin the continuation of smaller rural hospitals in the future confirms the Nationals concerns for hospitals and health issues across regional NSW, said Senator Fiona Nash.
Since NSW Health officials let it be known, earlier this month, that Kevin Rudds reform could force the closure of more than 100 NSW hospitals, almost all of which are in regional NSW the Nationals have been saying we are not been getting the whole story on hospital reform from Labor.
It took the bright lights of a televised national debate on health issues between the Prime Minister and Opposition LeaderTony Abbott for Kevin Rudd to finally admit he needs to protect regional hospitals and health facilities from falling victim to Labors health reform agenda.
In a policy back flip move that would make an Olympic gymnast proud even the head of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Andrew Pesce, admitted it was the first he’d heard Prime Minister Rudds change of policy.
Now that we know regional hospitals are a real problem for Kevin Rudd we deserve to know how he’s going to fix them.
In the next 12 months NSW voters head to the ballot box for two elections, Federal and New South Wales.
The Prime Minister must give the voters of NSW real answers on hospitals and health, and not gloss over it with spin, so voters can make informed decisions in time for the next election.
Senator Nash said Prime Minister Rudd says he’ll fix it, but based on his record in stripping funds, projects and programs from the regions who would seriously believe him?
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8.05pm Friday 26 March - Written by Jillian Skinner MP
Labor’s Secret Report: Small Local Hospitals To Close
Revelations that proposed health reforms will result in the wholesale closure of small hospitals demonstrates Labor just can’t be trusted, Deputy NSW Opposition Leader and Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.
Disclosure, on page 1 of The Australian today, that a secret report commissioned by the Keneally State Labor Government found Labor’s plans would close hospitals with fewer than 10 beds, and seriously threaten those with between 10 and 50 beds. The study was reportedly conducted by Professor Kathy Eagar from the University of Wollongong.
“Labor’s Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt must reveal the full extent of Labor’s hospital closure plan detailed in this secret report,” Mrs Skinner said.
“Carmel Tebbutt must release this report, in full, to the public,” she said.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that Labor will close smaller regional hospitals.
“The NSW Liberals & Nationals are firmly committed to ensuring families in regional NSW have access to quality health facilities now and into the future – Carmel Tebbutt needs to explain which hospitals she and her Federal Labor colleagues are going to close.
“After 15 years of Labor in NSW, rural and regional families cannot afford to suffer any further Labor cuts to local health services.
“We’re not willing to stand by while Labor cuts services to Cooma, Parkes, Narromine, Gunnedah, Springwood or Woy Woy – the families in these communities, and everywhere else in NSW, deserve quality care.
“Kristina Keneally and Carmel Tebbutt must guarantee that any changes to health funding agreed by her State Labor Government will not further disadvantage regional NSW.
“Labor needs to be honest about its plans to close smaller regional hospitals.
“The NSW Liberals & Nationals believe families in rural and regional NSW deserve a guarantee their hospitals and community health facilities have a future,” Mrs Skinner said.
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