3 December 2009
The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) today welcomed the
proposal from NSW Premier Nathan Rees to trial a regional funding system in NSW but
warned that to be successful the proposed model would need to operate outside of
political and bureaucratic influence.
"AHHA supports a single-funder model of health financing with the planning and delivery
of services occurring at the local level. This is the best option to reduce cost-shifting,
promote integration between different sectors of the health system and support a focus
on preventive heath,” Ms Prue Power, AHHA Executive Director said today.
"However, AHHA also emphasises that regardless of the funding model employed, public
hospitals need more resources than they have currently to deal with increased
community demand. Structural and governance changes are important to make our
system work better but we will still need a substantial injection of funding to ensure our
public hospital system remains viable.
"For the Rees model to be workable, State governments would need to maintain a high
level planning role and be responsible for working with the areas to develop local health
plans based on the regional population profile. Plans would need to comply with
benchmarks and standards, jointly determined by the Commonwealth and the
States/Territories which could be managed by the national commission/authority.
Hospital funding should be provided on the basis of episode cost (activity-based) plus
funding for capital infrastructure, prevention and community education adjusted for
location.
"In order to effectively measure outcomes and the quality of care being provided we
would need vast improvements to our current data collection and analysis processes,
particularly to ensure national consistency. It would also be essential to establish Boards
that comprise local clinicians, experts and community members who would be
responsible and accountable for purchasing healthcare services for people in that region
according to the area plan. This would need to occur without political or bureaucratic
influence.
"Clearly, there would also need to be mechanisms established for review of the operation
of the regions such that any seriously underperforming areas are held to account and
there is a robust contingency plan in place to fix any problems in a timely fashion.
"AHHA believes this proposal has promise and calls on COAG to consider it as part of its
discussion on health reform at the 7 December meeting, in conjunction with stakeholder
consultation. We look forward to working with all governments to ensure a secure and
stable future for Australia's public health system,” Ms Power said.
For further information/comment:
Ms Prue Power 0417 419 857
Rees proposal should
be on the table
NEWS 
