AMAV VICDOC Winter 2024 - Magazine - Page 38
A STRONG HEALTHCARE SYSTEM STARTS
WITH THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF
HEALTH AND KEEPING PEOPLE HEALTHY.
MORE INVESTMENT IN PUBLIC HEALTH
AND PREVENTATIVE HEALTH WOULD
HELP TO KEEP PEOPLE HEALTHIER.
We are always going to have people who
become unwell and injure themselves,
so we need a strong community care
system, including general practice, and an
excellent acute care system. These need to
integrate seamlessly to support people to
move out of acute care and back into the
community. We need to remove artificial
barriers and work together because we all
bring our perspective of what's best for
our community and what's best for our
patients. We need to be allowed to have
that integrated focus and to work together
without any barriers.
The current system focuses our health
resources on treating people when they’re
sick and injured. We need to support
general practice to decrease preventable
hospital admissions while also investing
in acute care to manage the needs of
people who are living for longer with more
complex chronic healthcare requirements.
More emphasis on keeping people healthy
is imperative.
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WE PROVIDE A WORLD-CLASS LEVEL OF CARE
IN OUR ACUTE PUBLIC HOSPITAL SYSTEM,
BUT THERE IS GROWING FRUSTRATION.
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Our health workforce receives worldleading training, strives for excellence
and delivers the highest standard of care.
But more people are unable to access the
system and have to wait longer, whether
that's for elective surgery, outpatients, or
access to appropriate rebates for general
practice care. It is not in any of our
interests for patients to end up sicker or
to experience more complications while
they're waiting. This vicious cycle creates
a burden on the system, contributes to
an increased need for emergency care
and hospital admission and costs more.
Many staff are exhausted. If we continue
to limit resources and push productivity
and efficiency, we're going to continue
to see an exodus.
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AMA VI C TO RIA
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MOVING BEYOND ARTIFICIAL DIVIDES
BETWEEN FUNDING AND RESPONSIBILITY
WILL BENEFIT PATIENTS.
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We need to focus on facilitating collaboration
and working as one system. Patients despair
at falling through the cracks of federal or
state responsibility. In my AMA role as
representative to the Federal Council,
I have been involved in the Federal AMA
campaign to clear the hospital logjam.
This campaign has made a significant
impact on stopping the blame game
between federal or state governments
in accepting responsibility for the public
health system and collaborating to
improve it. I'm proud of what we have
achieved. It’s incredibly important for
our hospitals, our patients and our
workforce, and will positively impact
the rest of the Australian healthcare
system too.
