The following appeared in the Sunday Telegraph this morning.
PM to Unveil Health Plan.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is set to unveil his long awaited plans to fix state hospitals tomorrow, plans that are expected to fall well short of his election promise of a federal takeover.
Instead, Mr Rudd is tipped to reveal pared down recommendations from the NHHRC for a limited takeover of hospital outpatient services.
A spokesman for Mr Rudd would not confirm tomorrows launch, except to say the Prime Minister was scheduled to make a speech concerning health.
But invitations to the event – described by some participants as “looking like a wedding invitation” – have already been sent out to key health sector players,
The event, at the Australian National University, is billed as a prime ministerial speech, followed by a discussion with participants.
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This sounds pretty well sourced to me so we can all plan a busy day tomorrow!
Thanks to ABC Insiders for the vision of the press report.
David.
The 'R' he will mention many, many times.
ReplyDeleteThe 'E' word he probably will not mention at all.
He may however, acknowledge that unless health information software systems become interopearable fast, many of the badly needed health reforms will fail to realise their full potential.
Well, despite the comments of many knowledgable domain experts, Christine Bennett and the NHHRC have managed to recommend a solution that is doomed to failure before it ever begins. The initial and key eHealth recommendation, Number 115, states:
ReplyDeleteWe recommend that, by 2012, every Australian should be able to:
* have a personal electronic health record that will a tall times be owned and controlled by that person
* approve designated health care providers and carers to have authorised access to some or all of their pesonal electronic health record, and
* choose their personal electronic healthcare record provider
I am sure I do not need to list the many reasons why this will not work, from the practical, to the commercial to the medical. If the solution does not reflect the way the practice of medicine works - IT WILL NOT WORK. How hard is this to understand???
Indigenous health? The poor? The chronically ill? The elderly? Babies? The proposed solution will only work for yuppies - who don't actually need it!
This has the unpleasant odour of Microsoft Healthvault all over it. I hope that money has not yet changed hands!
If the rhetoric is to be believed, we have six months to fix this rubbish.