We May Be About To See Our Health System Miss a Huge Opportunity.

Tomorrow is going to be a big, and I fear, very sad day, for the Australian Health System.

The following lets us know there are some important releases coming out tomorrow.

War on chronic disease to shift out of hospitals

Mark Metherell Health Correspondent

June 29, 2009

HIGHER taxes on cigarettes and tighter controls on food and drink promotion to counter obesity and alcohol abuse are likely to be among measures recommended tomorrow to turn health spending away from hospitals.

The Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said the proposals were likely to trigger a "difficult" debate.

The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and two separate taskforces on prevention and primary health will propose much greater reliance on non-hospital, community measures to combat chronic diseases.

The Government is expected to delay any decision on any federal takeover of public hospital funding until it has considered the findings of its reform experts.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, pledged before the election that by the middle of this year he would propose a federal takeover if state governments failed to show they were improving public hospital standards.

Some states, including NSW, are struggling to show signs of overall improvement although they have reduced elective surgery waiting lists with the help of increased funding.

In its report to the Government, the health reform commission is thought unlikely to urge a federal takeover of hospitals but is expected to call for a bigger federal role in funding for primary care outside hospitals.

In an interview with the Herald, Ms Roxon said it was time for Australians to have a "difficult conversation" about choosing the most effective and affordable health system.

More here:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/war-on-chronic-disease-to-shift-out-of-hospitals-20090628-d1b4.html

The major report will presumably be available on the NHHRC web site tomorrow.

This is found here:

http://www.nhhrc.org.au/

The interim and supplementary reports have been very disappointing from an e-Health perspective.

See here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/06/national-health-and-hospitals-reform.html

and here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/05/nhhrc-told-to-work-out-what-it-is.html

and here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/05/nhhrc-e-health-submission-due-tomorrow.html

The Primary Care Strategy and Taskforce site is found here:

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/Primary+Health+Strategy-1

The interim report suggested e-Health was important but that there was a long way to go before there would be optimal support for Primary Care provided with the present infrastructure and connectivity.

Will be interesting to see what the final report says.

The Preventative Health Taskforce site is here:

http://www.preventativehealth.org.au/internet/preventativehealth/publishing.nsf/Content/terms-of-reference-1lp

The strategy, when released will be here I imagine:

http://www.preventativehealth.org.au/internet/preventativehealth/publishing.nsf/Content/national-preventative-health-strategy-1lp

The discussion document does not seem to mention e-Health and is very light on in terms of measurement, information management etc.

If from these three documents there is not a coherent plan to sensibly use Health IT to make the health system safer, of higher quality and importantly sustainable into the future we are in deep trouble!

The “difficult conversation” Ms Roxon needs to have with the public will be much more torrid unless e-Health is right at the top of the reform agenda.

I await tomorrow’s releases with considerable alertness and some alarm!

David.