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ADF News & Media Releases

More Hospital Beds Will Help - 5 August 2010.
"Regardless of preventative health programmes and despite the best effort of those of us who work in primary health care, some patients will need to be hospitalised for their medical and surgical conditions." "Australians have always regarded access to hospitals as a very important measure of their health care and general security", Dr Iannuzzi said. According to the 2010 Australia's Health Report, the Australian public hospital system has suffered a loss in beds under State Government stewardship (11% decline from 1997-98 to 2007-08). It is only fitting that this decline be reversed to cope with a growing and ageing population.

NATIONAL HEALTH AGREEMENT DOES NOT SPECIFY % OF GST - 29 April 2010.
"Talk of 30% of GST being committed to health by states who sign up to the Rudd National Health & Hospitals Agreement is not backed up by the details of the Agreement", Mr Stephen Milgate, Executive Director of the Australian Doctors' Fund said in Sydney today.

GST snatch not much to do with healthcare improvement - 15 March 2010
"The recently announced and much trumpeted "healthcare reform” package is a ‘tax–grab’ sandwich with a dab of casemix to give it a health flavour,” Mr Stephen Milgate, Executive Director of the Australian Doctors' Fund said in Sydney today.,

Clinical Councils No Substitute for Hospital Boards - We Need Both - 2 March 2010
NSW Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt’s recent announcement that she intends to establish "Clinical Councils" comprising doctors and nurses to run hospitals is no substitute for inviting talented citizens to govern our public hospitals through the establishment of independent hospital boards.,

Doctors Welcome Hospital Boards - 16 February 2010
The Federal Opposition’s announcement that they intend to introduce hospital boards into NSW and Qld was welcomed today by the Australian Doctors’ Fund (ADF). "This is simply a common sense reform that will facilitate community support for local public hospitals," spokesman for the ADF, Dr Aniello Iannuzzi, said in Coonabarabran today. Provided the boards are appropriately appointed and have real teeth to deal with local issues, there is no reason why they can’t considerably improve the administration of local hospitals and provide the community with direct ownership of what is essentially a community facility.,

UK E-HEALTH Story Should Be Compulsory Reading - 4 February 2010
Dr Grant Ingrams, co-chair of the BMA and RCGP IT Committee made the following comments on 28 December 2009, "I predict that during 2010 the government will have a ‘Road to Damascus’ experience and finally recognise that a detailed health care record across a whole health economy will not improve healthcare. Sharing of data electronically can never replace continuity of care with a doctor or service; nor direct communication between two clinicians regarding a patient’s care"(2). ... There is a continued outcry for British hospitals and doctors to have a greater say in the choice of IT solutions. The UK Shadow Health Minister, Andrew Lansley has predicted "it is clear that 2010 will be a year in which we see a fundamental re-evaluation of the implementation of the NHS IT programme."(3),

Doctors Group Backs Call For Independent Hospital Boards - 29 December 2009
"The installation of an independent hospital board to administer a public hospital is not rocket science or revolutionary thinking. Some of Australia's most established public hospitals were built and governed by independent hospital boards before state governments started to replace community representation with health bureaucracy",

Doctors Condemn Coonabarabran Bed Closures - 9 December 2009
Until yesterday, Coonabarabran Hospital had 25 real beds; it is serviced by local GPs who live near the hospital to provide 24/7 emergency and acute services. It's the type of hospital model that should be replicated across NSW, in both urban and rural areas, and not marginalised to make way for office space that already exists on the hospital grounds.

NSW citizens to be governed by QLD and or VIC Parliaments - October 2009
"New legislation if passed in NSW will give other state parliaments governing rights over NSW citizens", Executive Director of the Australian Doctors' Fund, Mr Stephen Milgate said in Sydney today. The legislation is known as Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Bill 2009. The Bill is also before the QLD Parliament and we understand that it will be introduced into the NSW Parliament either today or tomorrow.

National Health Registration Law Flawed - Should Be Scrapped - July 2009
The Australian Doctors' Fund has called for medical practitioners to be removed from the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Bill B), claiming the Bill is flawed.

Kasper Report Backs Doctors Call For Independent Hospital Boards - February 2009
Recommendations for independent hospital boards contained in the Australian Doctors' Fund report 'Towards a more Positive Future for Australian Public Hospitals' (www.adf.com.au) have been endorsed by the recently released Kasper Report funded by the Centre of Independent Studies. The report is called 'Radical Surgery' (http://www.cis.org.au)

25th Anniversary of the 1984 Doctor’s Dispute - May 2009
Dr Bruce Shepherd who led the orthopaedic surgeons and other procedural specialists in the 1984 Doctor’s Dispute has released a Public Statement on the anniversary of the dispute. Dr Shepherd is also the founding chairman of ASOS

Doctors Back CIS Report That Recommends Public Hospital Boards Of Management - January 2009
The Australian Doctors’ Fund has endorsed recommendations for public hospital boards contained in an independent report into the NSW public hospital system by Prof Wolfgang Kasper released today by the Centre of Independent Studies. The report is called ‘Radical Surgery’ (http://www.cis.org.au) Executive Director of the Australian Doctors’ Fund, Mr Stephen Milgate said the report contained many of the conclusions our own research had delivered in our ADF report entitled, ‘Towards a more Positive Future for Australian Public Hospitals’ (www.adf.com.au).

Doctors Welcome New Notre Dame Sydney Medical School - July 2008
The Australian medical profession will overwhelmingly welcome the university's commitment to extensive teaching in bio-medical science and its strong emphasis on anatomy and pathology. Doctors will also welcome the involvement of medical practitioners at all levels of teaching and a return to the virtues of the mentoring model of medical education made famous by Cambridge University but out of fashion until revived by Notre Dame Sydney.

Doctors Call For Independent Board To Run Royal North Shore Hospital - September 2007
We must move from a model of State Government ownership and control to a new model, namely government funding with community ownership and control. ... This can be achieved quickly with the appointment of an Independent Board. ... Our senior doctors and nurses must also be invited to sit on this Independent Board in order to re-establish clinical leadership at the highest level. ... The Area Health Board system of management has not delivered a consistent standard of health care in line with the public's reasonable expectations

Why Bring Back 1750 BC? - November 2006
n their recent paper entitled, Making Medicare Better former Australian Health Insurance Association, CEO, Mr Russell Schneider advocates replacing fee for service medicine and the current referral system with the development of healthcare businesses, which aim at treating particular conditions, such as various types of cancer, and pay them on the basis of their results. The paper is endorsed by the past Federal Health Minister, Dr Michael Wooldridge. .. Taken to its logical conclusion, 'payment by results' (as determined by health funds) would see any doctor or hospital treating a cancer patient who subsequently died, punished through non payment or financial penalty. This would inevitably result in other 'high risk' (by health fund standards) patients having difficulty obtaining affordable medical care. I'm sure no-one would want this.

Obituary: Dr Michael Wertheimer - August 2006

Media & News Releases: 2005

Stop Beating It Mr Beattie - 2 December 2005
" ... the courageous and accurate reports produced by the inquiries held by Mr Tony Morris and his successor Judge Geoff Davies mean the Beattie Government must face up to reality ... The health system in Queensland, and to a lesser extent in all other states, has become a black hole into which public money is being spent without benefit. Most has been totally wasted. ..."

Patients Not To Blame - Beattie Should Get Off His Diet And His High Horse - 19 August 2005
"... He is not telling us where the billions of dollars going into the Queensland public hospital system end up and how much of the health dollar reaches patients. (Australia taxpayers spend $18 billion per annum on our public hospital system. That's $1000 per person per annum). ..."

QLD Doctors Undervalued - August 2005
" ... The Qld AMA states that Visiting Medical Officers in Qld public hospitals are the worst paid in Australia, and nurses are the second worst paid ..."

Health Oligopsony Not The Answer - 7 April 2005
"Proposals to establish a layer of taxpayer funded regional health care purchasing organisations who will buy health care from providers and supply it to patients won't deliver important improvements to Australia's health care system, ... this proposal combines the worst aspects of the British National Health Service and US style managed care ..."

Public Statement Concerning The Future of Australian Medical Education - April 2005
"Following due consideration of issues raised by medical practitioners, academics and medical students over the direction of medical education in Australian universities, and following the summit conference entitled "Rescuing Medical Education" held in Sydney on Friday 18th February 2005 (available on www.adf.com.au), the Australian Doctors' Fund calls for:"

She's Right - It Is Stuffed, (But We Must Know Why, And How To Fix It) - 14 April 2005
"The Australian Doctors' Fund today welcomed frank admissions by the SA Minister for Health, Ms Lea Stevens that hospital Medicare "is stuffed" and "a disaster waiting to happen". ... For many years state health ministers of all political persuasions have been apologising and telling official lies (spin) for a hospital system that simply can't deliver what Australians have been promised, namely "unlimited high quality medical care on demand to everyone all paid for by the taxpayer," Executive Director of the Australian Doctors' Fund, Mr Stephen Milgate said in Sydney today. "

OS Doctor Recruitment Warning! - April 2005
"The bottom line is that there are currently several thousand overseas trained doctors practising in the front line of Medicine in Australia who have not been formally assessed as to their qualifications and who are increasingly coming from non-western medical schools where it is very uncertain about the standards and content of the curriculum they have studied."

Media & News Releases: 2004

Rescuing Medical Education - 25 October 2004
"Without a good understanding of human anatomy and solid experience developing the skills needed to perform surgery, mistakes in the operating theatre are more likely to occur"