News

Urgent health system reform needed to tackle disease epidemic, says head of new University of Melbourne centre

Media Release, Wednesday 12 September 2007

Australia’s health care system needs new reform on the same scale as the introduction of Medicare in the 1970s if it is to cope with the 21st Century epidemics of chronic disease, says the head of a new health policy research centre to be launched tonight at the University of Melbourne.

Associate Professor David Dunt
will address the launch of the new Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics in the School of Population Health tonight.

Associate Professor Dunt says Australia’s current health system urgently needs major change.

Both political parties in Australia agree chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease are putting a major strain on the health care system, he says.

But their policies put forward in the run-up to the federal election do little to overcome the rigidities of the existing health care system.

“These policies seem likely to fail or at the best fall well short,’’ he says.

“Our existing system based on the fee-for service, doctor-patient consultation was set up to deal predominantly with acute, short-term illnesses such as infections and injuries, involving the fairly limited range of interventions then available for the diagnosis and treatment.

“Around this fee-for-service system has developed our largely uncoordinated health care system based on mixed public/private health care sectors and the overlapping roles of Commonwealth and State governments in both funding and delivering services.”
Associate Professor Dunt says this is unsuitable for the treatment of chronic diseases which requires teams of health professionals.

The system is also unsuitable for prevention which often requires long-term professional support to help individuals make health lifestyle changes.

Associate Professor Dunt says three major changes are needed including:
• A strict separation of state and Commonwealth roles;
• A breakdown in the separation of public and private sectors so there is only one system; and
• An overhaul of the Medical Benefits Scheme so that payment for services can be made to teams of health professionals providing ongoing care, rather than doctors providing one-off care.

“It’s now time to introduce another new system,’’ he says. “We need governments with the imagination and determination to adopt a new system and introduce it Australia-wide.”