This is what peak efficiency looks like

AMA (NSW) President, Prof Brad Frankum, says the latest figures from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) continue to show a system under strain.

“Every time the BHI releases one of its quarterly reports, AMA (NSW) is left saying the same thing: they show just how much strain our health system is under.

“It is an ongoing miracle that the doctors and other hospital staff continue to squeeze out incremental increases in performance.

“An example of just how small these changes are getting is that the BHI has been forced into using decimal places in its reporting.

“However, as the BHI itself notes, measures against performance targets like the four-hour rule in emergency departments continue to stagnate,” Prof Frankum said.

“This is our health system running at peak efficiency, this is where the Federal Government’s ongoing attacks on health have left us.

“This is a result of the ongoing Medicare rebate freeze, the unresolved hospital funding crisis we are still heading for, and the long-term underinvestment in general practice,” Prof Frankum said.

“This, if you believe the Federal Government’s continued rhetoric about health spending and the need for efficiency, is where they want us to be.

“The cost of incremental gains against performance targets is obvious – it is the situation the NSW health system currently finds itself in,” Prof Frankum said.

“The Federal Government belabours the point about health spending being out of control, talking about unsustainable costs.

“The 10-year average for health spending by the Federal Government is 9.12 per cent of GDP and we are below the OECD average on this benchmark.

“Two decades ago, health spending was seven per cent of GDP, and four decades ago it was six.

“Meanwhile, the Federal Government’s contribution to health expenditure is dropping.

“That is hardly representative of anything that could be termed out of control.” Prof Frankum said.

“The tsunami of patients presenting at emergency departments and being admitted to hospital is one way the Federal Government’s failures to invest properly in general practice manifests.

“With the right investment, GPs could be helping keep some of these emergency presentations from becoming emergencies in the first place.

“The Federal Government not adequately resourcing Health Care Homes, refusing to budge on the Medicare freeze, stacked on decades of under investment, make adequate primary care funding impossible.

“It’s not just hospitals that are struggling, GPs are too and this is the cost,” AMA (NSW) Vice President, Dr Kean-Seng Lim, said.

“Importantly, it should be noted that the good overall performance of the NSW health system, as a whole, hides significant causes for concern.

“Not least of all are the ongoing record-breaking emergency attendance and hospital admission rates.

“This is happening as we continue to see big jumps in the most urgent triage categories, while the proportion of lower urgency patients seen by NSW EDs continues to fall.

“The more complex care required for these sicker and more gravely injured patients takes time and requires the resources of our biggest hospitals.

“You can see that when you look at the performance of our largest hospitals, most of which trail the state average.

“In this way, those average figures hide the realities of much longer waits faced by thousands of the sickest patients who need the care that only the larger hospitals can provide,” Prof Frankum said.

Media contact: Lachlan Jones 0419 402 955