ACT hospitals worst in the country, Katy says it's not fair.

EvanJames said :

milkman said :

Exactly – throwing more money blindly is a foolish approach. We need to be smarter, or at least have people with better financial brains controlling the use of the resources.

They need to introduce some real managers into the health systems. Doctors, and even nurses, are not particularly good managers (in general). Such a complex entity needs pretty skillful people at the helm, and doctors should be working within it, not running it.

Most CEOs of ACT Health have not been doctors – it’s a bit of a stretch to assume doctors are running the system in that sense. Whilst the current incumbent is a psychiatrist, her predecessors were from wide range of health professions. Mark Cormack, the previous CEO, whose management legacy we are still living with, was an occupational therapist, I believe. Nonetheless, I agree that professional managers with adequate understanding and insight into the system are preferable to appointing a healthcare professional without management skills and/or experience.

Leinna said :

Having worked in Victorian, NSW and ACT hospitals:
* ACT Hospitals are the best funded, have an average service, but are very inefficient
* NSW Hospitals are the worst funded, have the worst services, but are the most efficient
* Victorian Hospitals are well funded, have good service, and seem to be quite efficient
ACT seems to spend a lot of money on things (like destroying new carparks only to rebuild them) that are wasteful, but I’d still rather come to an ACT hospital than a NSW hospital as they are all stretched to (or beyond) breaking point.

If that’s true, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

NSW hospitals are managed by very poor-quality managers. The people at NUM level might be good, but the over-all admin, at sector and area level is not good, wasteful. And don’t get me started about the mob in Sydney…

Victoria is generally held to be the ones closest to getting it right. Mind you, they think they are, too.

Having worked in Victorian, NSW and ACT hospitals:
* ACT Hospitals are the best funded, have an average service, but are very inefficient
* NSW Hospitals are the worst funded, have the worst services, but are the most efficient
* Victorian Hospitals are well funded, have good service, and seem to be quite efficient
ACT seems to spend a lot of money on things (like destroying new carparks only to rebuild them) that are wasteful, but I’d still rather come to an ACT hospital than a NSW hospital as they are all stretched to (or beyond) breaking point.

nice_enough said :

We may have the worst hospital waiting times in the country, but our hospitals have the nicest multi-storey car-parks.

Roads and car-parking wins votes in Canberra not silly things like health or education.

We could use one of those fancy multi-story carparks over here at Calvary, parking is non-existant past 9:00am. TCH had their little one but they didnt like the colour so they knocked it down and built a bigger one.

Could have given us the smaller one instead of trashing it, bunch of tight-arses.

We may have the worst hospital waiting times in the country, but our hospitals have the nicest multi-storey car-parks.

Roads and car-parking wins votes in Canberra not silly things like health or education.

milkman said :

Exactly – throwing more money blindly is a foolish approach. We need to be smarter, or at least have people with better financial brains controlling the use of the resources.

They need to introduce some real managers into the health systems. Doctors, and even nurses, are not particularly good managers (in general). Such a complex entity needs pretty skillful people at the helm, and doctors should be working within it, not running it.

johnboy said :

Oh this is some of pollyanna’s best work ever!

http://www.chiefminister.act.gov.au/media.php?v=10946

that is hillarious (considering we are the WORST IN THE COUNTRY)

housebound said :

I can sort of see Katy’s side of the argument. A system that rewards treating short waits more than dealing with long ones does have flaws. But Katy – it is always the case that the measurements end up driving the system. It is an argument to be made before you fail or after you succeed, not after you fail.

She knew the measurements and she has admitted (on ABC) that she made a deliberate choise to do things her way anyway. She should have seen the outcome.

I heard the same interview – and came to the same conclusion. That’s what we pay them for isn’t it?……..strategic leadership is obviously one of the many casualties of the health system here.

EvanJames said :

Throwing extra funding at something that is not working is not the answer. The way in which health money is spent by the jurisdictions is a real concern, having seen it first-hand. health people seem to be quite poor at efficiently managing resources. I’ve seen financial black holes that would not have existed if some sensible, over-all financial mangement was applied.

We actually do fund health sufficiently, but the way the money is spent is where the problems start. This is a national problem, not confined to Canberra.

Exactly – throwing more money blindly is a foolish approach. We need to be smarter, or at least have people with better financial brains controlling the use of the resources.