Health care is a major issue in Victoria and Australia generally. The whole system is virtually falling apart, through lack of funding, poor planning, inefficient practices, overloading the system and failure to address the issues. Some of the many issues include,
There needs to be a total rethink on how we provide health care to the nation. We typically replicate the same system, which involves building a very large and expensive hospital, that caters for many needs, but due to its size compounds many problems. There is never enough parking for visitors and what there is, is expensive. The hospital will cater for the immediate surrounding area, but this means that the accident and emergency wards are swamped, causing long delays. In an emergency you want to be seen quickly, so, we need to break up health care into manageable sectors, that cater for specific needs.
Health care can be broken up into the following.
We need to establish localised Accident & Emergency centres that are within a ten-minute drive. These do not need to be large buildings, more like a large doctor’s surgery. Their primary purpose is to enable injured or sick people to be ferried by family members to the local A&E. This will mean that rather than waiting for an ambulance, persons with simple fractures, cuts etc can go to local A&E themselves and been seen quicker, than if they went to the main hospital. By having many local A&E centres set up strategically, will mean that they will not be swamped with many patients, thus reducing the waiting times. Ambulances that have injured persons, will be able to access on-line live information, about which local A&E has spare capacity and be directed to them. There is nothing worse than a patient requiring immediate attention having to wait in a corridor of an A&E hospital ward, because the ward is overloaded with emergencies. Also, currently ambulances are overworked and are at breaking point, with attendance times blowing out. Because the A&E is local, it will be possible for a person to be taken, by a family member, thus negating the need to call an ambulance.
A local A&E centre should be able to attend to say twenty people over a given period, with either the injured person being fixed up and sent home or their injuries stabilized, pending transfer to the main hospital. When an A&E centre is full, they can record the number of patient attendees that they have, which will be live and on-line, which can be accessed by the public and medical professionals, so that persons needing treatment can check and then go to an A&E which is not busy. By spreading the work load, it should make treating emergencies a lot more efficient and eliminate long waits in hospitals.
Maternity wards are for one purpose only, but involve a lot of time and special needs. Maternity wards should be removed from main hospitals and established as standalone hospitals strategically placed where the population consists of young people and young families. This will make travel times from home to hospital shorter and the facility should be designed for easy access, followed by easy parking for the husband. Maternity hospitals can be of varying sizes, and can repurpose unused commercial buildings, with the necessary fit out. This will reduce cost and once the area has aged and the birth demographics change, then the maternity hospital can be repurposed for a different function
Main hospitals should be responsible for simple routine operations, complicated operations, treatment for serious illness and disability and treatment for terminal illness, primarily because the equipment required can have multi-uses. In the long run it may be possible to adapt to a new system, but initially main hospitals will continue to function as they are. With the proposed measures implemented, these will help reduce the burden placed upon our limited main hospitals.
We have an abundance of vacant commercial buildings, which could be purchased or rented and converted into makeshift hospitals. This repurposing would dramatically reduce the cost of hospitals and enable small hospitals to spring up all over the place, especially where they are most needed.
There needs to be a complete review of salaries and working conditions of all our health care professionals. Working staff for long hours is not conducive to a healthy work environment. It also increases the chances of mistakes being made or corners cut. The Australian public must be assured that they can have faith in their health system and that their health care will not be compromised because of disillusioned staff, whose morale is non-existent. We need a health care system fit for purpose.
The biggest burden placed upon hospitals arises from illnesses that really need not exist, such as obesity and diabetes. Due to our poor diet and poor health attitudes, we are creating unnecessary burdens, that could and should be avoided. We all need to lead healthy lifestyles, watching what we consume and the amount. A national “get fit, stay fit” programme must be promoted from the cradle to the grave. We need to work with the food industry to create a system of removing unnecessary and harmful ingredients from everyday food. Rather than taxing companies for putting too much sugar in our food, we must work with industry to voluntarily remove sugar, salt and chemicals by ten percent every year, until the high levels of these substances have been reduced or completely removed. Cooperation is better than coercion and if we all play our part, our health will improve and reduce the burden placed upon the health sector.
We will set up a formal enquiry into Covid, Covid Vaccines and Vaccine Injury, that will thoroughly establish the facts, not only to expose the truth, but to punish those involved and to establish methods to detect vaccine injury and find a way to fix it. The 30,000 vaccine related deaths in Australia, dwarfs those killed by the virus and yet, although the catch phrase in 2021 was, “One Covid death is too many”, tens of thousands of vaccine deaths is perfectly alright.
The Nuremberg code was established to deal with the consequences of the Holocaust. The problem that the Nuremberg prosecutors faced during the trails of the NAZI war criminals, was that the NAZI party had passed legitimate German laws to allow them to legally perpetrate the crimes against the Jews and others. There were substantial medical experiments carried out on prisoners, for the purpose of pushing the medical knowledge and treatment frontier. When challenged, the German’s argued that they were just following orders, as dictated by German law. Because it was possible for an evil government to pass laws that could subject its people to horrendous treatment, against their will; the Nuremberg Code was introduced, which was designed to protect people from their own government, that wished to forcibly experiment on or harm its people. The code meant that every individual had the right to refuse medical treatment or medicine of any kind. Unfortunately, during covid, the Australian government completely ignored the code and any one quoting it was nonchalantly rebuffed or branded a “Karen”. Had the Australian government adhered to the code, then many more people would have declined the vaccine. The Nuremberg Code will be written into Australian Law, to prevent a reoccurrence of the crimes committed by the Australian governments during covid. Any breach of this code, forcibly enacted by any Government or Politician, upon the Australian people, will be punishable and subject to the death penalty.
The health system is funded by the Medicare Levy, which is 2% of your taxable income. There is a lack of funding for the health sector, for a variety of reasons, but the demands for good health care are forever increasing. There will come a point in time, where the demands outstrip the supply and the only way to increase supply, is to increase funding.
We therefore need to have a discussion, as a nation, on what type of healthcare system we want. If it is of a certain type, then this will need to be paid for. To this end we may need to have a referendum on whether we increase the Medicare levy rate and to what figure. In view of what other countries charge for their Medicare levies, going to 5% is not unreasonable, but it is for the people to decide.
The general opinion is, that the public are not opposed to the 0.5% increase on Medicare to pay for the NDIS, because they believe that it is all for a good cause. So, should we consider increasing the Medicare Levy to 5% to allow for increased spending on the NHS to alleviate the pressures.
Both measures, of increasing GST or the Medicare Levy, are potentially unpopular and run contrary to Conservative principles, but we are in desperate times with spiralling debt. It may well be inevitable, that at some point in the future a Labor or Liberal Government may do either or both, to help them with balancing the budget.
Any increase in Medicare Levy could be phased in over, say, five years, by increasing the rate by 0.5% each year until it reaches 5%. If the increased levy results in improvements in the NHS, reduced waiting times, more hospital beds or better after care, then the public may well not disapprove. Any decision on increasing GST or the Medicare Levy should be put to the people to decide through a referendum.
The way in which Medicare bulk billing is paid is cumbersome. Sometimes you will be sent a cheque that you then have to forward to the doctor or you will have to pay a bill and then go and claim the rebate from the Medicare office. All this is totally unnecessary when the doctor could just invoice directly to Medicare for the balance of his bill or the total bill if payment is made in full. By having Medicare offices, we are simply creating jobs and incur the expense of running offices, which is an unnecessary drain on the finances. We should centralise the Medicare Bulk Billing into one central location to which doctors communicate. Patients will no longer be required to participate in the reimbursement procedure.
In its current form it is not fit for purpose. A good idea that was ill thought out and poorly implemented. It has become a licence to print money for some, whilst not delivering the services that those in need require.
The pricing structure appears to have been designed along the lines of the “ideal” model, i.e. what someone would ideally want to be paid, instead of along business lines, which would take into business and competition considerations. The fact that claimants were able to claim for all sorts of weird and wonderful things, proves that there was no real oversight of the scheme. Organisations seem to have been left to their own devices and have been able to work out and exploit the loopholes.
The persons requiring the help have been given far too much free rein over the finances of the scheme. The concept of a disabled person being able to have the same person come and attend to their needs, because they have a rapport with them, is a good thing. But the reality is the disabled person will get who is available and they may or may not develop a rapport with them.
The NDIS missed what was really required and focused too much on the propaganda of this idyllic world of smiling faces. People who are in need, need proper functional and professional help. The help needs to be cost effective and efficient, so that the service can be maintained.
We will need to scrap the NDIS and revert to the old-fashioned health service with home visits. All the middlemen need to be removed and replaced with one government department that organises and oversees the whole scheme. They will deal directly with the patient or disabled person and they will provide the appropriate and necessary help that is required. All the helpers will be public employees or dedicated persons from the private sector, who will provide their services at a discount, due to their access to guaranteed volumes of work.
The ambulance service plays a vital role in the health system. They are the first service that people call when they have a medical emergency. The public relies upon the ambulance service to ensure that their injured relative can be picked up and delivered to a hospital in time to save their life. If faith in the ambulance service is lost, it undermines the faith in the whole health system.
The ambulance service needs to be fully funded and supported to ensure that it works to its peak performance. Ambulances may need to be stationed at various locations, such as fire stations, police stations and council depots. This will enable the ambulances to be dispersed over a wide area, meaning that an ambulance will be within a closer proximity to people in need.
Dental health is something that affects everyone. Teeth are the main feature of your smile, so bad teeth can undermine your confidence. Dental care is expensive through the private sector and difficult to obtain through the public sector.
We need to establish a fully funded national health dentist service, which is free to the user aged up to 18 years old, and only a nominal charge for people 18 plus. The service will be funded by sovereign money, which is the only exception to the non-return policy that is applied to sovereign money payments. Providing the nation with good and free dental care is in the best interests of the people.
It will be necessary for an adult aged over 18 years of age to pay a $10 contribution fee for any and every visit to the dentist. This is not an unreasonable amount to pay, which allowing for two dentist visits a year is only $20. All costs above this amount are paid by Denticare.
Private dental care will still be permitted. Persons who opt for private dental care will pay the full amount of the dental bill themselves or via their private health insurance. Private dental care may be needed for those who wish to jump the queue and seek urgent treatment, that otherwise could wait. The patient may only wish to use a particular dentist, whose time is short. All foreign patients, holiday visitors and non-Australian residents will need to pay for their own dental visits.
We will end all subsidies to private health insurance. As an insurance product it should be rated according to the cost and number of claims. If claims exceed the premiums, then the insurer will need to increase the premiums or put pressure on the medical professionals to reduce their costs. Private health cover should only be for those that can afford it and the premiums should reflect the type of clientele that use that service. Our national health system should be able to provide appropriate and adequate health cover for the public, without the need to go private.
We need to thoroughly explore the medicinal benefits of marijuana and ensure that it is available to those that can benefit from it. Alternative medicine should be considered and at least tested to see if it works. Pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in not allowing alternative medicine to become common place. We must challenge this as there may be better and cheaper ways of helping people. German new medicine famed for curing cancer must be introduced into the Australian health system, so that we can test the benefits of such a programme.
We need to review the number and types of vaccines that we administer to the public. Although not anti-vax we are concerned with the growing number of complaints and issues that relate to vaccines. We will look at reverting back to traditional vaccines and reduce the number that are administered to investigate and see if there are any real changes, positive or negative. The public must have faith in the vaccine programme otherwise we will undermine their confidence and put at risk the lives of people that otherwise would have lived if only they had taken the vaccine.
All we hear now is ‘Mental Health” and the problem with this is, that if you say it often enough, people will start to believe it and attribute any issue they are experiencing, to mental health. Mental health is something that pharmaceutical companies like to promote as it means billions of dollars in sales of prescription drugs to combat issues that are not really there. If people led healthy lives, eat the right food, exercised and socialise more, then many of these so-called health issues would not arise in the first place. People have become weak and get upset over the most trivial of things. We need to toughen up and learn to control our emotions and think through our problems, including taking responsibility for problems that we caused. Genuine mental health issues do need to be dealt with, but we should be looking to fix the root cause, instead of just the symptoms.
Rural communities cannot survive if they do not have access to good health care. Although it is not possible to build a hospital in every town, there should be a medical facility that is equipped to handle all but the very serious of medical issues. Doctors and dentists must be properly remunerated to either relocate to the regional areas or at least open a second practice, which they will attend a couple of days a week. Good regional healthcare has to be a major consideration in the plans to develop the regional areas. With the creation of the two new cities, this will help the sounding regions to have closer access to more facilities.
We need to do far more for our elderly and ensure that they have a good quality of life as they grow old. The entire aged care system needs to be completely reviewed and measures put in place that will provide quality care for those that cannot look after themselves. Aged Care staff need to be fully trained to the highest standards and be vetted to ensure that they hold the qualities required to care for others, especially those that have dementia. We should make every attempt to keep the elderly in their own homes and only move them to assisted living when it becomes necessary. We must also ensure that the elderly are not just locked up and left to rot. They need to continue to enjoy life and live a full life, after all they have spent their lives earning it.
Where we abolish or amend hecs for medical professionals, there will be an expectation on them to serve twenty years in the NHS before they can branch out into the private sector. For those medical professionals who only want to work in the private sector and not the NHS, then they will they will not benefit from the hecs rebate.
