It seems that there have been almost as many leaks from Canberra about our pending May 2011 Federal Budget, as there have been with a cup of water in a sieve! Most attention has been on the scientific Research and Development grants which are expected to be chopped by the Federal government.
Most recent news has been the means testing for family allowances and child care, and health and education projects.
Let's make the suggestion now that, if health cuts are required, the Federal Government should, first of all as a matter of priority, consider stopping the roll out of the Medicare Locals ($500,000,000 savings) and the funding for the Local Health/Hospital Networks (LHNs) which are incorporated in the Federal-State governments funding agreement.
In NSW, which is the only State that may have implemented the LHNs since 1st January this year, it appears to have rolled them out on the promise of the funding. However, all the previous NSW government seems to have done is add another bureaucratic layer to an already over-corporatised health system.
As reported in this blog previously it would seem that the Federal government has already told the previous NSW state government to get rid of the LHNs that they have rushed to implement.
Obviously, if the Federal-State health budgets are going to be impacted by the soon to be announced Federal Budget cuts, then the funding for the not wanted LHNs will be top of the list.
If these obvious cuts are, in fact, brought into reality it would be up to the new coalition NSW State government to decide whether their State Budget can maintain the additional funds needed to support the LHNs and the state's Medicare Locals. Socrates's hope is that they recognise that the NSW population can do without the additional mis-management that such poorly run and poorly considered projects can introduce.
It would be hoped that both the Federal and NSW governments will see that some of the current applications for Medicare Locals from NSW are very short on the necessary community consultation and colloboration with other public and private healthcare providers. The latter is best exampled by the recent application by the Macarthur-Southern Highlands Division of General Practice consortium. The contrast has been the very extensive consultation and collaboration done by the Bankstown GP Division and their SWS Health Coalition.
