Thread: Gloomy news on the Health Front

A couple years ago Mayne Health sold the busy Carina Medical Centre to another medical corporation, who promptly closed it telling the clients that they could go to their nearest one at Mt. Gravatt. No direct public transport so the elderly and others unable to drive or afford a $25 taxi each way would have to take two buses on a journey of up to two hours depending on the waiting time for each bus. No other local practice could accept more than a few former Carina clients. Some would not take any. This was a full service centre, GP's, pharmacy, pathology, physio, x-rays, etc. so its closure affected more than just the patients seeing GP's.

A cynical aside on attracting physicians to country towns. Rellies for many years farmed near Allora on the Darling Downs. They always had troubles attracting a Dr. for the community hospital. This is only 100 miles from Brisbane and is a quite pleasant location. It is not Quilpie or Bedourie. When a rellie had a heart attack in 1973, there was not a Dr. in either Allora or Clifton. Choice for ongoing treatment was to go to the public hospitals in either Warwick or Toowoomba or wait until a visiting physician called twice weekly to the community hospital in Allora.

Sometime later the Shire Council got some federal funding, bulit a retirement village cum nursing home, and a caravan park. Chock full of pensioners. Allora now has a thriving medical practice and a visiting specialists centre. That constant click-click you hear is the sound of the Medicare card machines in use as the medical fraternity visits and bulk bills all the pensioners in the homes and at the practices. Not "build it and they will come" but "wave the money at them and they will come".

Am I disillusioned and cynical?

Sorry to hear JD.
This is what is going on all over country NSW.
We are 20 mins from Yass but if an ambulance is dispatched they normally come from Harden and take up to 45 mins.

The visit Casualty is also a standard response in Yass when you wish to see a doctor.

Originally Posted by George130

Sorry to hear JD.
This is what is going on all over country NSW.

I can confirm that the Far South Coast and Monaro of NSW are in the same sort of predicament !

And just to make it "easier" for the oldies to seek medical treatment, at greater distances, they are making it harder to retain their driving licences !

You scared me for a minute there John - I thought the title was referring to your own health!


Yep - the health system is screwed. It is bad in Sydney, but we have nothing on rural areas.

I consider myself fortunate that:

1) I almost never get sick, and when I do it is almost never serious (I got Glandular Fever about two years ago. I was knocked out for 3 days, hazy for two and then I was fine and have been since. The person I got it off was ill for months and had to drop out of Uni. She still gets recurrances...)

2) I have access to health care here in the big city - not like out at the farm...

I do recon any new doctors medicare provider numbers should only be given for country practices [after they have finished any internship/post graduate medicine training that is] If the government did this then it would help aleviate shortages of doctors in the country. After say ten years of practice in the country the doctors should then be allowed to move to the city if they wish. But if they have done a few compolsery years in the country, then a numberof them may choose to stay in the country. Most doctors think they are better off in the city so want to go there. this would be a partial remidy.

Originally Posted by JohnF

I do recon any new doctors medicare provider numbers should only be given for country practices [after they have finished any internship/post graduate medicine training that is] If the government did this then it would help aleviate shortages of doctors in the country. After say ten years of practice in the country the doctors should then be allowed to move to the city if they wish. But if they have done a few compolsery years in the country, then a numberof them may choose to stay in the country. Most doctors think they are better off in the city so want to go there. this would be a partial remidy.

This might be a partial solution, but I do not know of any real solution. The management of GWAHS is not good, but the basic problem seems to a combination of a number of factors -

1. NSW governments regard the state as consisting of Newcastle Sydney Wollongong.

2. How the state government has managed to be in a serious cash shortage after years of record revenue is a mystery to me - all I can think of is gross mismanagement together with a bloated bureaucracy. The real costs of all the feel-good regulations and paperwork are coming home to roost.

3. Health costs in real terms are increasing, despite improvements in general health. This is largely because there are more treatments available plus doctors (and others) doing a lot of barely justifiable tests and treatments to protect themselves from litigation. This is encouraged by the tendency for people to go to the doctor for symptoms that would have never considered going for fifty years ago. But again, as in 2., bloated bureaucracy drives up costs out of all proportion to the problems it is designed to prevent.

4. People going into medical professions are chosen basically on academic scores and parental pressure, not suitability for the job.


Not directly related to health, but it is interesting that the NSW government has just announced the second major increase in a year in green slip (Compulsory third party insurance) costs. This after a year with the lowest accident statistics on record. So if the accidents rate was way down, and certainly the number of cars paying this charge is substantially up, where is this money going? Presumably into higher health costs? or bureaucracy?

John

An interesting update on this issue.
It appears that all 220 NSW public hospitals are broke
Read more here

Originally Posted by JDNSW

2. How the state government has managed to be in a serious cash shortage after years of record revenue is a mystery to me - all I can think of is gross mismanagement together with a bloated bureaucracy. The real costs of all the feel-good regulations and paperwork are coming home to roost.

John

It's no Mystery. The rest of Australia has bled NSW dry. Since the GST was introduced in 2000, NSW has been on a slow decline of tax revenue, facing pressure to revoke state taxes in return for receiving GST dividends, NSW has consistently received less GST revenue than the proportion raised within the State, and less than the previous State tax revenue forgone. Complaints to the Fed Govt that we weren't getting enough fell on deaf ears with Howard saying that every cent of GST revenue was returned to the states, and if we'd like more, we'd have to fight the other states at the Premier's conference. Naturally, state's like Qld and WA were quite happy to keep their share and use it to keep down their local taxes like fuel levies and registrations at our expense.

While you can argue the the NSW Govt is mismanaging the state (with funding problems not just affecting Health, but also Education, Police, Transport, Roads, Power Generation, Fire Service, Nat Pks......... etc, etc), I think they're doing all that could be done with the minimal amount they've got. Just about every problem in the State revolves around funding, and the blame for that lies with the GST.