Regional Health Authorities are the way to go

Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay says he will canvas other state MPs to back any federal move to establish Regional Health Authorities.
He said the concept had been part of a Health Policy for rural and regional areas he put to Parliament in a speech in September 2005.
“Getting rid of the two tier system and putting all the funding into one pot means more resources for front line services,” he said.
“Cost shifting, the blame game between the state and federal governments and the duplication of bureaucracies makes no sense at all for a hard pushed sector that is struggling for every dollar.”
The MP also advocated a return to local health boards reporting to the Regional Authorities and maintaining a close liaison with health professionals at a local level.
“We need an end to the negative tension between clinicians who deliver front line services and administrators whose main job is cost control,” Mr Torbay said.
“Allowing the funding to follow patients and procedures and proper consultation with regional health boards on local conditions and requirements would make Regional Health Authorities much more effective in delivering health services.”
Mr Torbay said a thorough overhaul of the public hospital system was long overdue.
“The Multi Purpose Health Service (MPS) model has worked wonderfully well for smaller communities and reflects cooperation between state and federal government on funding and service delivery,” he pointed out.
“There is no reason why this cooperation should not be extended to larger hospitals with funds distributed on a case load basis through proper consultation with frontline staff and local communities.”
Further information Richard Torbay (02) 6772 5552/ 0427 635 029


 Hansard & Papers
Legislative Assembly
22 September 2005

Rural Health Services
Full Day Hansard Transcript « Prior Item | Item 47 of 51 | Next Item »
About this ItemSubjects - Health Administration; Rural Health Speakers - Torbay Mr Richard Business - Private Members Statements

RURAL HEALTH SERVICES
Page: 18240

Mr RICHARD TORBAY (Northern Tablelands) [5.35 p.m.]: People living in rural communities in New South Wales have the right to the same level of health care as their city counterparts. However, rural people in New South Wales live, on average, five years less than people from the more advantaged metropolitan areas. In addition, rural New South Wales faces a number of other health challenges: relatively low population growth limited largely to regional centres, increasing difficulties with attracting and retaining scarce health professionals, and a necessary concentration of some specialised health services in centres at some distance from where people live. Overall, rural dwellers have a poorer health status than their city cousins. Developing an integrated approach to human service delivery in rural New South Wales will play a major role in ensuring the future of many small rural communities.

To achieve success this approach must be supported by a significant investment in long-term planning and infrastructure resources. It is apparent that the physical infrastructure of many health services in rural New South Wales is substandard for health service delivery. An investment of more than $3 billion over the next 10 years is required to deliver safe, sustainable and efficient health care services. Information technology has the potential to transform the way in which care is provided and to assist people to work together to achieve better health outcomes. To build a broadband network across New South Wales to realise this will require an investment of $40 million over the next three years, with recurrent savings of about $13.5 million per annum. People in rural New South Wales continue to be hampered by problems of long-distance travel to services and lack of public transport or other adequate travel systems.
Whilst it is not appropriate to provide specialist services in every town, access could be improved by the better use of high-speed broadband activity and the development of an effective transport system for human service delivery. Infrastructure to support a transport network would require an annual recurrent investment of $1.75 million across rural New South Wales. The New South Wales Futures Planning Project identifies that we cannot address health needs simply by providing more health services. A co-ordinated partnership approach with Federal, State and local governments, individuals, communities, government agencies and the corporate sector is needed. This would be progressed by the establishment of a regional health authority. Policies and requirements of governments should be tailored to the capacity and needs of rural areas, decreasing bureaucracies and targeting health care to community needs.
Governments must centrally develop and adequately fund rural health authorities to deal with the specific health service needs of rural areas and develop rural-friendly approaches to health issues. There should be the development of appropriate needs-based and culturally sensitive rural health care resources with local community involvement, regional co-operation and government support. It is well established that there is a critical shortage of doctors, specialists, nurses and allied health professionals in regional areas of the State. The maldistribution of specialists in many regional areas, particularly in palliative care, geriatric medicine, obstetrics, psychiatry, dentistry and pharmacy, is attributed to issues such as remuneration, professional support, indemnity and capacity for private practice, which should be addressed. We need strategies to encourage new recruits.
Strategies with strong potential include generic training of health professionals in their first years of undergraduate degrees, maximising team-based skills development, and providing an opportunity to reduce course length; developing a new degree-level program to train multiskilled health workers with skills across a broad spectrum, including nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and podiatry; providing scholarships, incentives and payment systems that expand the number of health professional undergraduate and graduate places in rural areas, across all professional areas; and expanding the vocational education and training sector health training opportunities to maximise the training and capacity of support staff. By providing a mechanism that gives credit for training experience and on-the-job skills development, lateral entry to high professional training would become available.
Incentive programs could include those who have worked effectively for other professional groups, preferential transfers for years of rural service and supported entry and exit into rural positions. Leave loadings and incentive payments awarded to teachers, police and professionals in other sector remote locations need to be considered for health professionals. Greater flexibility could be achieved through developing alternative roles such as anaesthetic assistance, surgical technicians and multiskilled allied health professionals, overhauling the accreditation processes that reinforce professional rigidities, and reviewing professional registration and regulation. For a long time we have been aware that health services in rural and regional areas are reaching crisis point. It is time for innovative solutions and, above all, a commitment from all levels of government.