Public hospital system in 'logjam', AMA says
20:44
Public hospital performance is at a record low, according to Australia’s peak medical body.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) today released concerning new data which shows patients are waiting longer due to a system that is in “logjam.”
Data from the Australia Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) for the 2021–22 financial year reveal emergency department and essential elective surgery performance has continued to deteriorate with access to timely healthcare out of reach for many Australians.
Nationally, close to 40% of patients had to spend more than four hours in an emergency department, the worst emergency department performance recorded in 20 years. ACT and Tasmania are the worst performers, with almost one in two patients having to spend more than four hours in an emergency department.
The AMA president, Prof Steve Robson, said that this latest data indicates the system is now at breaking point.
Prof Robson said:
This week we have seen reports of children waiting up to 12 hours for emergency care and patients dying while ramped at hospitals, and we know that these are not isolated instances. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg … there are hundreds of stories of patients waiting for hours on end in hospital emergency departments, or in the back of an ambulance outside the hospital.
Robson said the solution needs to be reform of the nation’s public hospitals.
Clearly the way in which we fund our public hospital system is broken when we are forced to rely on the private system to treat our public patients. This is not a sustainable solution, and a new funding agreement is needed to support public hospitals to improve their performance, expand their capacity, and reduce their wait times.
20:35
Good morning! Natasha May now on deck with you.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has been speaking with ABC News Breakfast this morning following the reserve bank’s decision yesterday to rise the cash rate by another 25 basis points – with the possibility of more increases not ruled out by the bank.
Chalmers says the RBA governor, Phillip Lowe, still has confidence he is the right person to head the central bank.
We do have an inflation problem in our economy at the same time as we want to make sure that it can continue to grow strongly. These decisions are taken independently by the Reserve Bank. The thing about these interest rate rises is that impacts are felt immediately by people with mortgage repayments but the impact on the economy does take a little longer to flow through.
Chalmers is avoiding making any criticism of Lowe, saying the RBA is independent of government institution but he does mention the review under way into the reserve bank.