Croakey

Will the buck stop with Rudd on fixing the hospital system?

Editor: Fron Jackson-Webbon: June 27, 2013In: health reform, hospitals, The Conversation

Robert Wells writes: One of the key platforms of the first Rudd government was to reform the health and hospital system. The key message from then-prime minister Kevin Rudd was that the heal... Read more

The Health Wrap: Tobacco control, Closing the Gap, patient safety, pharma sagas and more

Editor: Kellie Bisseton: June 14, 2013In: The Health Wrap

By Kellie Bisset Tobacco control was a dominant issue this fortnight, but Closing the Gap on Indigenous health inequality, barriers to evidence-informed policy, patient safety and immunisati... Read more

“Blueprint for Better Healthcare”, The Queensland Health Minister’s Locomotive

Editor: Michelle Hugheson: February 28, 2013In: health reform, hospitals, Indigenous health, prevention, primary health care, public health

Yesterday the LNP in Queensland announced its “Blueprint for Better Healthcare”. Michael Moore, CEO Public Health Association of Australia and Adjunct Professor Health Policy and... Read more

Medi-muddle: hospital funding fight is resolved but the blame game goes on

Editor: Fron Jackson-Webbon: February 26, 2013In: health financing and costs, health reform, hospitals, The Conversation

Stephen Duckett writes: After months of battle between the Commonwealth and Victorian governments on hospital funding, Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek dramatically intervened last W... Read more

Is the blame game an incurable blight upon Australian health care?

Editor: Melissa Sweeton: February 22, 2013In: health reform, hospitals, Medicare Locals

If every system is perfectly designed to produce the outcomes it gets, then it’s clear that our “health system” (of course there’s no such thing) does an excellent jo... Read more

Forget the blame game, let’s focus on making health dollars go further

Editor: Fron Jackson-Webbon: February 15, 2013In: health financing and costs, health reform, health regulation, health workforce, hospitals, The Conversation

Anthony Scott writes: The latest round of the health blame game is in full swing, with service cuts to Victorian hospitals, and neither the state nor federal government taking responsibility... Read more

Queensland Health: public one day, private the next

Editor: Melissa Sweeton: January 25, 2013In: health financing and costs, health reform, hospitals

The never-ending federal-state blame game about hospital funding is in full swing in Victoria and Queensland, where the Health Minister has warned that the equivalent of 2,000 full time nurs... Read more

Targets alone won’t solve long waits for emergency care

Editor: Fron Jackson-Webbon: December 14, 2012In: hospitals, The Conversation

Gerard Fitzgerald, Professor of Public Health at the University of Queensland, writes: Data released today by the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA) shows just 54% of major metropo... Read more

Saving lives by keeping patients out of hospital

Editor: Melissa Sweeton: December 11, 2012In: health reform, hospitals, quality and safety of health care

Next time you hear a politician or medical lobby group arguing for “more hospital beds”, perhaps you could flick them the link to this recent study suggesting they have the wrong end of the... Read more

Do hospital clinicians have too much power?

Editor: Melissa Sweeton: November 16, 2012In: health ethics, health inequalities, health reform, hospitals, public health, surgery

The distribution of power within the health system has a profound impact upon how the funding cake is divided and to what effect. In the article below, health economist Professor Gavin Moone... Read more