PM, states delay healthcare overhaul

The state and federal governments have delayed an overhaul of the nation's
healthcare system because it's too important to get wrong, says Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd.

Health reform dominated the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in
Brisbane on Monday, with Mr Rudd and state and territory leaders discussing it for
more than two hours.
After the talks, Mr Rudd said they had gone through matters raised in the National
Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report and its consultation "issue by issue",
and agreed to defer a decision to next year.
The decision-making process will be confirmed by month's end, before proposals are
put to the states in the first half of 2010.
Mr Rudd said the data on future workforce shortages was "very stark and very sobering".
Long-term reform must get those challenges right, he said.
"You ask the question why are we taking some time to work our way through this for
the long term?" Mr Rudd said.
"These are massive numbers which affect the totality of the health system, therefore
they have to be got right, and that's what we're working on.
"A bit of sticking plaster here and a bit of sticking plaster there, frankly, when
you're looking at long term reform, won't work."
He defended the federal government's progress to date, saying it had signed a new
National Healthcare Agreement with the states, co-invested in health infrastructure
and consulted widely on health reform.
But federal opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton said Mr Rudd had promised to
fix the health system by mid-2009, and still hadn't acted.
"Over the last two-and-a-half years, Kevin Rudd has made all sorts of promises about
health and he's delivered nothing," Mr Dutton told reporters on Monday.
"Kevin Rudd is sounding very much like a state Labor premier, he promises to fix
hospitals and fix health at an election and in the period in between elections he
does nothing."
On other health matters, COAG signed off on the framework for a future "e-health",
or electronic health system, which promises to ensure better medical record keeping
for patients while protecting individual privacy.
It also signed a National Partnership Agreement on Elective Surgery, which will see
the states and territories share in $300 million in incentives to cut waiting lists.
AMA national president Andrew Pesce said his organisation was pleased with the
initiative but warned it would have only a temporary impact.
"We have to be grateful for any extra support that we get in the public hospital
system, but that's a finite measure," Dr Pesce said.
"There'll be no substantial improvements in the public hospital performance until
all the dysfunctional funding arrangements come to an end."
He said the AMA supported the federal government being the sole source of funds of
public hospitals, with the states having to deliver services and meet performance
targets to access full funding.