Brumby asks government to rethink $50 billion hospitals plan

By Candy Lashkari

Victoria Premier John Brumby's letter to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asks the federal government to rethink its $50 billion hospitals plan. Besides asking about the Commonwealth’s vision for the primary and aged care, Brumby also wanted to know how the proposed reforms would help to put the Commonwealth-state blame game to an end.

In an interview on ABC Brumby mentioned, “We have got thousands of people who can't get beds in aged care facilities, and many of them are in beds in hospitals when they should be in aged care facilities”. He states, “How will people know who is managing the system and where the buck stops”

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s response to the criticism was that the Commonwealth would become the dominant funder of public hospitals, but a 150 local networks are going to be in charge of the daily operations.

Ms Roxon said, “If things go wrong with your rostering or your particular service delivery it should be your local hospital network (that's blamed. If it's funding, it clearly will be the commonwealth that people will look to because we are taking on the lion's share of funding for our hospital services."

As in his letter Brumby asks for more details about the preventive health plan proposed by the commonwealth, Ms Roxon answered that the states has already delivered $872 towards preventive care based on a 2008 deal.

“These are part of the arrangements that have already been agreed with the premiers and a reminder to Mr Brumby that at the end of 2008 we put a lot of commonwealth money into prevention," Ms Roxon said.

In a television interview on ABC Ms Roxon also mentioned that the health care changes would deal with the lack of incentives to provide different types of care. According to audited age care figures gathered in a study by the federal government’s Department of Health and Aging, nursing home profits have declined from #3773 a year in 2004 to $603 a year in 2008.

The CEO of Aged and Community Care Victoria (ACCV), Gerard Mansour, said, “Here is an opportunity for the state premiers and the PM to deal with the whole picture. We commend the Rudd Government for putting the whole issue on the table and we commend the Victorian Government for highlighting the need for aged care reform.”

According to Mansour their primary concern was that the aged care systems and hospitals need to be considered together. The hospital issues should not forget about the aged care needs. He mentioned, “Our risk is that the hospital train leaves the station and they forget to put the aged care carriage on. If they deal with the hospital issues at COAG, our biggest risk is that the aged care ‘bikkie jar’ will be empty”

Prime Minister Rudd’s address on the economy today is being seen as the ideal opportunity for him to clarify some key facts. He is likely to focus on the importance of health policy in getting the most out of the workforce, given the aging population, in the future.