Media Releases

“Amongst the messages the Treasurer Mr Costello delivered last night was the unspoken one to the hundreds of thousands of Australians waiting for admission to a public hospital bed,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.” The message was ‘Just keep waiting, I’ve a fistful of dollars but I’ve better things to spend it on than you”.

“Why, in the face of successive huge budget surpluses, could the Treasurer not find some money for our needy and deserving hospitals?” asked Dr Woodruff. “The best he could do was an expansion of an inadequate, inefficient, and ineffective ‘safety net’ for dental health with an initiative which will not reach most of the 650,000 people on public dental waiting lists.”

“Sadly, perhaps one reason this budget contains so little for our patients who wait, desperate for the proper care that the rich can afford, is the lack of a strong, coherent, and opposing policy on health care from the cross benches”, said Dr Woodruff. “Clearly the message the Government is receiving is, ‘why spend budget money on the issue?”

“Last night the federal treasurer Mr Costello yet again demonstrated that he is far more interested in producing budget surpluses than in a properly run and adequately funded health system. Building surpluses on the back of under funded essential services and a continuing decline in the proportion of federal public hospital funding is a callous and cynical disregard of our patients and health staff”.

“Today it was reported that yet another elderly patient needing heart surgery was turned away from Westmead Hospital. The situation is much the same around all of Australia. We are all at risk. How many more patients will need to die before the needs of the Public Health System are properly addressed” said Dr Woodruff.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

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“The predicted budget increase in Medicare funded dental services will do almost nothing to improve the care of the hundreds of thousands in the community who face years long waiting lists to access proper dental care,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“Meanwhile the taxpayer funds full extras cover for those on salaries as high as the Prime Minister can get a 35% rebate on Blue Ribbon private health insurance cover and avoids paying 1% of his 2.5% Medicare levy”.

“Whilst the Federal Government claims that dental care should really be a State responsibility it manages to find over $400 million per year for the dental component of the PHI rebate,” said Dr Woodruff. “But it also forgoes many more millions per year in not collecting the 1% Medicare levy for high income earners who have private health insurance.”

“Private dental care is awash with taxes, but it’s almost all being spent on those rich enough to afford private health insurance extras. The paltry programme of dental care for the desperate funded through Medicare introduced several years ago has not worked and cannot work even if expanded,” said Dr Woodruff. “It is designed to have little impact because this Government does not believe it is responsible for the dental care of the majority of Australians. There are not enough dentists to do the work and the red tape and restrictions to accessing the Medicare payments ensure the programme’s very limited effectiveness.”

“This policy demonstrates the total disregard the Federal Government has for the health of all Australians, and the ideological obsession with promoting access to quality health care only to those who can afford it,” said Dr Woodruff.

This is credit card oral health and the Government should apologise to the 650,000 Australians languishing on public dental waiting lists, preparing their pureed food whilst the rich tuck into their T bone steaks.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

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“The report form the the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released yesterday indicates that $1.7 billion are wasted every year treating patients in hospital who should have been treated better in the community,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “The main cause for this wastage, the report claims, is inadequate care in the community.”

“This is a crushing indictment of the Federal Government which is responsible for the funding of and access to, general practitioner care throughout Australia,” said Dr Woodruff.

“For our patients this means unnecessary admission to hospital because they can’t get adequate treatment in the community eg in nursing homes”, said Dr Woodruff.

“In addition it means year long waits to get into public hospitals for elective surgery, and day long waits in emergency departments because patients who should never have needed admission are taking up a bed.”

“This puts a lie to the claim that public hospital problems are just a State responsibility,” said Dr Woodruff. “It’s time the Federal Government recognised that it is failing to deliver widespread accessible affordable general practitioner services to all Australians.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

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“Suggestions that the ALP is set to abandon a provision in its policy platform opposing growth in private care at the expense of the public system (SMH today) should be of great concern to the 56% of Australians and 65% of over 65 year olds who don’t have private health insurance,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“Whilst Australians’ use of private hospital care has been increasing since the introduction of the Private Health Insurance (PHI) rebate, the majority of Australians still need and want a public hospital system funded by both Federal and State Governments,” said Dr Woodruff.

“The suggestion for the ALP National Conference would appear to indicate that the needs of the majority of Australians are to be seen as less important than the needs of those lucky Australians who can afford private health insurance,” said Dr Woodruff.

My patients facing an eighteen month wait for surgery must wonder why their neighbours have the same operation within weeks, supported in their private hospital bed by taxpayer funded private health insurance, said Dr Woodruff. How does this fit with Kevin Rudd’s stated commitment to social justice? Our public system is clearly lacking in resources whilst over $ 2 billion of taxes per year are spent on private hospital care. Where is the Labor commitment to a public health system delivering quality health care to all, independent of capacity to pay”? said Dr Woodruff.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

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“Medicare ‘safety net’ spending figures per electorate released yesterday by the Health Minister, Tony Abbott reveal a sorry tale suggestive of middle class welfare and pork barrelling,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“Most disturbing is the way the money is directed to those electorates which are the most socio-economically privileged,” said Dr Woodruff. “The top three electorates for safety net spending per voter are Wentworth, North Sydney, and Bradfield. They are also the top three electorates on the socio-economic rating scale. Thus in Sydney’s Bradfield at the top of the rating, the taxpayer pays $74 per voter but in nearby Fowler, the lowest ranking electorate, only $12 per voter is spent.

“Rural Australia is also the sad loser from the largesse of the ‘safety net’ as rural electorates constitute seven of the bottom ten electorates for ‘safety net’ spending,” said Dr Woodruff.

“Braddon, at the bottom of the pile, gets a miserly $1.41 per voter per year.”

“It is also of great concern that eight of the top ten electorates rated according to the amount spent per voter in the electorate are in Liberal held seats, such as Minister Abbott’s own seat of Warringah where $68 per voter finds its way from the taxpayer to help pay the medical bills of his voters.”

“This Government’s guiding spending principle in health seems to be that those with the least need get the most and those with the most need get the least. That’s the inverse care law” said Dr Woodruff. “Rather than calling on the Labor Party to endorse the ‘safety net’, the Government should be apologising to most Australians, particularly those in greatest need, for setting up such an inequitable scheme”.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

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“Another 4.5% rise in Private Health Insurance premiums announced by Health Mininster Abbott means another $110 million per year of taxes given to those who can afford PHI,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “This is on top of the $2.5 billion already given.”

“Now over $400 million in taxes per year is being spent on private dental care for those rich Australians who can afford PHI extras, whilst the Federal Government refuses to fund dental care for the majority of Australians, many of whom are waiting up to 6 years for public dental care, eating pureed food without teeth.

“Added to that is the complete failure of the PHI rebate to affect waiting times at public hospitals or to make PHI more affordable: it has become less affordable every year since the rebate was introduced,” said Dr Woodruff.

“What has happened to the Government which was going to govern for all Australians?,” asked Dr Woodruff.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

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