Australian health review : a publication of the Australian Hospital Association
-
The factory situation: are people seen as number patients or are they handled with care and compassion? Hospital care should aim at treatment of the whole person--role of non clinical services within hospitals, partnership with community--role of parents; better communication needed between treating professionals and patients--would reduce complaints and possible litigation; people wish to be partners with health professionals in their own treatment and recovery not articles on an assembly line; rights of patients to be given full facts of their illness and prospects for recovery. Who "pays the piper"? Medical audit, accountability, peer review; iatrogenesis or "doctor induced" illness e.g. adverse reaction to prescribed drugs, hospital induced infections, malnutrition, faulty diagnosis or failure to diagnose. Who motivates the provider and support personnel and how? Institutionalisation and its effects on treatment and recovery, attitudes by providers and receptors. New trends in treatment patterns and delivery facilities: high technology, birthing centers, is there a role for alternative professions within hospitals? Who looks after the consumer? Ombudsman , medical boards, licensing authorities, Australian Council on Hospital Standards.
-
Since the early 1970s there have been almost yearly reorganisations of the Australian health care system. These reorganisations provide an interesting case study for those who wish to distinguish the rhetoric and the reality of health planning in this country. ⋯ It examines the impact of these changes on the cost of health care, the use of medical services and the health of the population. Finally, the paper contrasts the available data with successive politically inspired attempts to mislead the community about the true basis and consequences of these changes.