.L.._~ Gillard gave more on health deal: Baillieu Page 1 of3 ~

Gillard gave more on health deal: Baillieu

PUBLISHED 02 .. c: .." c:::20c 1: 1: . DAVID CROWE, Mathew Dunckley, Fiona Buffini and AAP Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has rubbished Prime Minister 's claim that the commonwealth did not grant concessions to win over the states to a proposed overhaul of the health system.

s Gillard announced on Tuesday morning that a new model fOD funding hospitals would be established that would lift the federal funding contribution to 50 per cent of the growth in expenses in c]r urn for the states agreeing to introducing, among other things, 'activity-based" funding and local hospital boards. Ms Gillard told reporters that any claim that there had been concessions by the federal government between the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in February where a heads of agreement was signed and Tuesday's agreement was "simply wrong". Ted Baillieu: "It is clear that we have got significant improvement to the prior Mr Baillieu responded to that assertion by listing the wins he said funding arrangement". Photo: Angela had secured since that meeting. Wylie They included: • An exemption for Victoria's home and community care (HACC) from a commonwealth takeover • The retention of funding under state legislative and financial control in the state-federal pool that will remit cash to hospitals

• $30 million in reward funding. "It is clear that we have got significant improvement to the prior funding arrangement," he said Ms Gillard announced an agreement with most states in February ~ 2011 but West Australian Premier Colin Barnett did not sign up to ~ the plan until this week, after details were negotiated. Julia Gillard has denied the states won any concessions between February and .-1 The Prime Minister on Tuesday rejected suggestions that she had Tuesday's announcement. Photo: Alex t1 been forced to give ground to the states to make progress on one of Ellinghausen her government's big ambitions. "This agreement today delivers on the heads of agreement I entered into in February. It delivers on it in full, so any suggestion that there's been concessions made between February and now is simply not right," she told the press conference. Earlier on Tuesday, WA Health Minister Kim Hames said Canberra's compromises were significant. "While we send the money across, it goes into a state-controlled account, so we will have state legislation controlling our account, their money goes into that and is regarded as ours when it gets there, and really that was the deal doer, I guess, we're not going to let them control the flow of our money." Sources in Canberra countered that statement by saying that it was always intended that states would have the ultimate say over their funding. Ms Gillard lauded the agreement as a breakthrough that would improve health services, as she acknowledged that an earlier reform blueprint issued by her predecessor, , was never going to succeed. "What this new deal means, put simply, is more money, more beds, more services, more local control, greater accountability, less waste and less waiting times around the nation," Ms Gillard said. "There will be clear transparency and accountability about where that money goes to and how it is spent." The has cited the health deal as evidence it was getting on with what Ms Gillard called her year of "decision and delivery" on reform, claiming that the agreement would give patients faster treatment at emergency departments and earlier action on elective surgery waiting lists. Mr Rudd announced a health reform agreement in early 2010 but this never gained the full support of the

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states. Under the deal, the federal government will pay 50 per cent of rising health care costs from 2014-15. The deal is worth an extra $16.4 billion to the states in the first six years. Overall it will deliver $175 billion over two decades to 2030. Also under the agreement: • 90 per cent of all patients presenting to a hospital emergency department must be seen within four hours. This is a change from an earlier target of 95 per cent that applied to only a selective group of patients, but Ms Gillard defended the change by saying it was done on the advice of an expert panel. • There will be a new target for elective surgery waiting lists with 100 per cent of patients' treatment delivered on time. Under the original deal it had been 95 per cent with the remaining 5 per cent to be referred to private hospitals. Ms Gillard said the change had been advised by experts. •A MyHospital website will enable the public to see where the money is being spent and how services are delivered at their local hospital. •A new authority is to decide on the "efficient price" for each medical service, forcing the states to become more efficient in order to get work done at or below that price. • New local hospital networks will be formed to manage health services in each region and will be ultimately responsible to state governments. The number of health networks is to be lower than originally planned under Mr Rudd's reforms. While Ms Gillard acknowledged that her plan dropped key elements of Mr Rudd's blueprint - including a bigger federal funding takeover that involved taking GST revenue off the states - she insisted that the original deal was never going to be agreed on. Ms Gillard disputed assumptions that Canberra would have to control the local health networks in order to get a better outcome, saying that transparency would generate results in health just as it was in education. "We don't run schools. We introduced better funding, better quality standards, better transparency and it has catalysed change," Ms Gillard said. "There's no reason to be sceptical about that - you've actually seen that happen before your very eyes with Australian schooling. Transparency made a difference." Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon earlier said the deal took account of legitimate state concerns but maintained key reforms vital to ensure extra money went into the health system. "I think health reform is always complex, I think you can take two steps forward and one back ... but ultimately through this process we have ended up hundreds of steps ahead," Ms Roxon said. Health policy experts said while the reforms should reduce waiting times for surgeries and improve emergency room care, the package was more about reform to health funding than health systems. Emeritus professor at the University of NSW John Dwyer said: "It remains largely a program for changing the way we finance our hospital system, the really good things in this package are the increased responsibility of the Commonwealth to fund growth for hospital services, so that they'll be more money for into the future for the states can rely on for their hospital services." "Certainly, there is an emphasis on improving efficiencies in hospitals that might see us able to reduce waiting times for elective surgery, and there is more money in the system. I'm just a bit concerned that there is not enough money to really make the different that we would all like to see," Professor Dwyer told the ABC on Monday. "It's a reform package in a financing, accounting sense rather than a system sense and that's its biggest weakness. "There's a huge number of issues to tackle to give a modern health system that is fair and that is cost effective and sustainable; we still have no oral health program ... and we have yet to see how widely we can spend the mental health money to improve mental health so there's still many questions to be raised." Professor Stephen Leeder, director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, said the package should make it easier to get "care in emergency departments and should reduce waiting times for surgeries ... and generally make the system more stable". "The things that people wanted from health reform were a guarantee that there would be service there if they need them in an emergency, and that's perfectly reasonable ... and also to ensure there's enough hospital beds for the care of people who require them, so those two things make good sense.

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"This is a 10 to 15 year project but it's a very good beginning." The Australian Financial Review See also Related News • Softer surgery target replaces 'guarantee' Pe?ple Nicola Roxon, Julia Gillard, Ted Baillieu • PM gave states blank cheque BisilOP Topics Health & Wellbeing, Politics/Federal Politics • PM gets states to agree on health reform •I . • Health deal fact sheet • National Health and Hospitals Network Agreement

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