6 September 2011

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

| johnboy
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The ABC has a story on the COAG reform council finding the ACT is the worst performing jurisdiction for elective surgery.

This is going to cost the ACT nearly a million dollars in bonus funding.

Chief Minister Gallagher is complaining about the unfairness of it all:

Ms Gallagher says she has told Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon she thinks the system is unfair.

“I did write to Nicola Roxon saying when you look at how we performed and that if we modelled a different scenario we could have met those targets, and that’s unfair,” he said.

“I think we should still have access to the reward funding based on the work we’ve been doing and the good results we’ve got.”

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gun street girl5:07 pm 12 Sep 11

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.

The media and public (and seemingly now COAG) really need to move past elective surgery and emergency department waiting times as THE measure of a hospitals performance.

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

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

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.

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.

A million dollars is spit in the ocean of Government funding. It is only 2.5 phallic owls. (which I believe is now the standard unit of measurement for public spending)

Just imagine how much extra funding we’d have to fix the health system if not for the GDE cost blowout and the arboretum.

Chop71 said :

Listening to her on the radio this morning whinging about statistics reminded me of a little kid trying to explain the FAIL on his school report card to his dad. A FAIL is still a FAIL no matter how you try to spin it.

oh, and thanks for missing the extra $1 Mil (only by a small %). As a rate payer, I don’t care how close you were.

Listening to her on the radio this morning whinging about statistics reminded me of a little kid trying to explain the FAIL on his school report card to his dad. A FAIL is still a FAIL no matter how you try to spin it.

It’s ‘The Renovators’ model of health funding.

So… were apparently the worst performing and cutting bonus funding is going to help that how?

Am I missing something or is the logic is flawed here?

Shouldnt those hospitals performing poorly be looked at as needing more funding, not a good source to take resources/funding away from?

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