January 30, 2009 – 5:48 pm
Andrew Podger, a former Health Department secretary and public service commissioner, writes:
I have no doubt Ragg is right in highlighting problems of inequality in Australia’s health system, but I am also not sure we should expect the system to achieve full equality even if it were operating well.
Slowly and surely governments are recognising that our [...]
January 30, 2009 – 5:39 pm
Ian McAuley, an adjunct lecturer in public sector finance at the University of Canberra and a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development, writes:
Mark Ragg’s report on our health care is an excellent snapshot, looking like the school report card of a brilliant kid with severe autism.
The only disagreement I have with Ragg is that [...]
January 30, 2009 – 5:32 pm
Dr James Gillespie, Deputy Director, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, writes:
Mark Ragg has reminded us that the undoubted successes of Australian health care are blighted by deep inequalities. The most worrying thought that emerges from his well presented figures is that these are not just hangovers from an earlier era soon to be swept aside [...]
January 30, 2009 – 2:08 pm
Dr Andrew Penman, Chief Executive Officer, Cancer Council NSW, writes:
Ragg reminds us that equity in health outcomes is a value more promoted in the health service than realised. But there’s more to differences in cancer survival than a headline. He needs to dig deeper to separate wheat from chaff.
First point to make is that not [...]
January 30, 2009 – 2:02 pm
Professor Gavin Mooney writes:
Thanks Mark Ragg for providing more evidence that the Australian health care system is unfair. This needs to be said again and again and again. The only thing that is surprising here is that Mark is surprised.
Of course the richer more articulate middle classes with English as a first
language get better, faster [...]
January 30, 2009 – 1:54 pm
Robert Wells, Director, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, writes:
Mark Ragg’s analysis of the Australian health system is an elegantly simple document with a profound message. In all our argy-bargy about ‘blame games’, funding systems, ‘improved service delivery’ and ‘more appropriate models of care’, perhaps we have lost sight of a fundamental fact: the health system [...]
By Croakey
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Posted in Health inequalities, Indigenous health, health reform, primary health care, private health insurance
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Tagged COAG, healtgh inequalities, Indigenous health, primary care, private health insurance, public hospitals, trachoma
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January 30, 2009 – 10:21 am
Health and communications consultant Mark Ragg spent a fair bit of time wading through health statistics and reports to come up with his own personal assessment of the state of our health system.
His conclusion, as reported in Crikey yesterday, is that the system is generally fine – but it’s not fair.
“You do much better [...]
By Croakey
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Posted in Health inequalities, Indigenous health, cancer, chronic diseases, health reform, poverty
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Tagged cancer, health reform, health system, Indigenous health, inequality, private health insurance
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January 29, 2009 – 9:45 am
John Mendoza, Adjunct Professor of Health Science, University of the Sunshine Coast, wants more support for web-based mental health programs:
“Gavin Andrews (see previous posts) is absolutely right in his assertion that the web offers great potential for the effective treatment of some mental health problems in our community.
Australian researchers like Andrews and others including Helen [...]
January 29, 2009 – 9:37 am
Dr Peter Cotton, a psychologist, writes in response to Gavin Andrew’s recent article on web-based treatment programs for depression, anxiety and other disorders:
“My initial response is that I think this is a very promising and potentially helpful development. It builds on, and is consistent with, emerging research around the web-based delivery of programs for common [...]
January 28, 2009 – 8:49 pm
Dr John Ashfield, a rural psychotherapist, has added these comments to discussions about the role of web doctoring in mental health (see previous posts for more info):
The use of internet technology must inevitably have a place in psychotherapy and psychological treatment of mental health problems and mental disorders – particularly in rural and remote areas [...]
