Page 1591 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2007
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done in last year’s bus service cuts that many people have given up on ACTION as a way of commuting. It will take a large promotions budget to get those people back on buses—or the huge petrol price rises that are bound to come.
Health is a big ticket item. This year’s health budget tackles the sharp end of our health system, where it is easy to see the need but expensive to fix—more acute and intensive beds, specialist hospital units and capital works at our hospitals. But the health budget contains no evidence of a plan to continue to reduce the pressure on our hospitals in coming years. The best way to take the pressure off hospitals is to ensure that most people do not need to go to them. That is why programs to promote good health and prevent illness, and to intervene early, before hospitalisation is needed, are so important to the good management of a health system.
The minister admitted yesterday that she would like to spend more on early intervention and prevention but that the very sick come first and they are very expensive. We know the very sick are very expensive. And we know that waiting for an intensive care bed at Calvary when your mum or dad or your child is really unwell is a shocking experience. Waiting for hours on end to be seen at Canberra Hospital’s outpatients unit is just awful for all involved—staff included. We also know that these experiences inform government action, because they are real, painful, and frightening.
On the other hand, early intervention and prevention programs aimed at stopping people getting sick and needing hospital care just do not have the same impact on the electorate. It is hard for people to see, for instance, why positive messages about eating well and acting early on health concerns are just as critical to maintaining a viable health system as, say, more acute care beds. But this has to be our priority for funding if we are going to relieve the pressure on our hospital systems in the long term, otherwise we will continue to see increasing amounts of funding going to bricks and beds.
What this year’s health budget is lacking is a vision of where the ACT government is going on health. We need to be told: what is the government’s vision for our health system in 10 years? Will we still be responding to the constant, ever increasing demand for more acute beds, aged care and mental health services? The government’s 2004 social plan states clearly the following health challenges facing the ACT: increasing obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, our changing family structures and the ageing population. The social plan says:
By focusing on prevention and early intervention across the lifespan we can improve the likelihood of positive health and social outcomes for everyone.
One of government’s specific goals to improve the health and wellbeing of people in the ACT is a “focus on prevention and early intervention throughout people’s lives”. Three years later, the government believes that “it has in place strategies to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions”. That is a remarkable statement. The government has a long way to go before it could be justified in making such a claim. Where are the new funds in this budget for prevention and early intervention?
Another goal is to “reduce harm from alcohol and other drug use” but, three years later, where are the new funds in this budget for drug and alcohol services? Another
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