Portioning Health Care

Arguably, bureaucracies achieve efficiency primarily through portion control. Here's an example.

The Australian Medical Association has warned of a new wave of "secret" cuts to public health which it says could decimate front-line hospital services already struggling to cope with record patient numbers.

Senior doctors at several Perth tertiary hospitals claimed that hospital administrators recently told them to find areas that could be cut as much as 10 per cent as part of the Government's across-the-board spending cuts.

The doctors said the advice had been verbal rather than written and they believed this was to avoid public scrutiny.

They say the existing Government-imposed 3 per cent funding cuts have stripped services to the bone and they warned that any further cuts would make it impossible to provide essential care to patients.

Treasurer Troy Buswell said this week that he was cracking down on what he regarded as out-of-control spending by the Health Department, claiming it was ignoring directions from the Government and employing too many new staff.

AMA WA president Gary Geelhoed said hospital administrators were now making it clear to senior staff - without putting it in writing - that more cuts to services were looming. He said the Government should make it clear if this was the case.

Granted, health care is portioned out under a free market system also but the decision-makers are the patient and doctor and not a nameless bureaucrat in a government office building.

Notably, the portioning out of health care is frequently referred to as rationing. Advocates of socialized medicine dislike both terms.