The Health News – 15 July 2015
Overview:
• Health groups praised the Queensland Government’s for funding the detection and prevention of chronic disease that was delivered today $49.9 billion budget, but Health groups say more money is needed to tackle for the ice epidemic.
• Private hospital provider Calvary Health Care chief executive, Mark Doran is warning Tasmanian Medibank customers they will pay more for medical services if the insurer terminates its contract with the health service.
• An incident which saw part of a patient’s record “inappropriately” deleted by staff radiologist Paul Newbold at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide the incident will be investigated by SA Health.
Health News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 15th July 2015. Read by Rebecca Foster.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-14/queensland-budget-2015-health-groups-praise/6619702
Health groups have praised the Queensland Government’s budget for funding the detection and prevention of chronic disease, but say more money is needed to tackle the ice epidemic.
Treasurer Curtis Pitt today delivered a $49.9 billion budget, which predicted a $1.2 billion operating surplus in 2015-16.
The Australian Medical Association of Queensland welcomed extra funding for nurses and paramedics, but president Dr Shaun Rudd warned more funding for extra hospital beds was required.
Mr Rudd said the Government had also provided funding to reduce the long hospital wait list for elective surgery.
Diabetes Queensland said the Palaszczuk Government was at the forefront of addressing the growing diabetes epidemic.
The group’s chief executive, Michelle Trute, said the Government delivered on its election promise.
“$27 million over the next four years is a great investment in turning diabetes around here in Queensland,” Ms Trute said.
The Heart Foundation described the budget as good for people’s health and the economy.
Health director Rachelle Foreman said the budget provided funding to keep people out of hospital.
Executive director Lindsay Wegener welcomed the increase in funding for family support services and mental health services.
But he warned more funding was needed, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Private hospital provider Calvary Health Care is warning Tasmanian Medibank customers they will pay more for medical services if the insurer terminates its contract with the health service.
After lengthy contract negotiations between Medibank Private and Calvary, the insurer announced a fortnight ago it would terminate the contract at the end of August.
Medibank presented Calvary with a list of 165 “highly preventable adverse events” that it would no longer pay for.
It also said it would not cover unplanned re-admissions in a 28-day period unless the patient had a chronic illness or was terminally ill.
Medibank said it had successfully negotiated contracts under similar terms with other providers, but Calvary had been unable to agree.
Calvary treats about 60 per cent of Tasmania’s private hospital patients, and about a quarter of those are Medibank members.
Calvary’s national chief executive, Mark Doran, said patients who were Medibank members would have to pay more at Calvary’s hospitals around the state from September if the contract was terminated.
He said he hoped patients would be able to see the benefit in continuing to choose Calvary’s services over other providers.
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Medibank’s senior medical advisor, Ian Boyd, said he was still hopeful an agreement would be reached with Calvary, but if members had concerns they should get in contact.
An incident which saw part of a patient’s record “inappropriately” deleted by staff at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide will be investigated by SA Health.
The inquiry will also look at whether delays in reading medical scans contributed to the death of a patient in a separate case.
Radiologist Paul Newbold claimed part of a patient’s record was deleted after he made criticisms of hospital management on the file.
He said the deletion of his comments was “very dangerous and very sinister”.
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The incident will be investigated by chief medical officer Paddy Phillips.
Both cases are linked to a new computer medical imaging system called ESMI, which was introduced at the hospital in May.
SA Health chief executive officer David Swan said staff thought the comments were not relevant to the patient’s medical condition, but admitted deleting them was inappropriate.
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Problems with the IT rollout of ESMI have caused delays in reports of x-ray, MRI and ultrasound results being made available for doctors.
Dr Pope said the rollout of ESMI had caused long delays in medical images being reported on and the results being checked by the referring doctor.
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