National Health Reform Briefings – Questions taken on notice

Melbourne – Questions taken on notice

• Can you comment on upstream services from ambulances to hospitals, either in terms of the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority or emergency department targets?
• Can you outline the workforce strategy to attract and recruit mental health nurses as current mental health nurses will be moving out of the public system due to the Mental Health Nurse Incentive?
• People with mental illness who present to emergency departments often have to be transferred to hospitals out of the area or hospitals are forced to discharge in-patients early to create a bed for mental health patients. Have you given consideration to the impact of the four-hour emergency department targets on patients with a mental illness who present at emergency departments?
• Mental health reform has a lot of focus on early intervention/psychosis. There is an absence of strategies for long term mental health care. What is the thinking for people with long term mental illness who come in and out of services?
• Who will comprise Lead Clinician Groups (LCG)? It is important that Indigenous Health and Allied Health are included in these groups.

• In our area, one of the Divisions of General Practice has been split into three Medicare Locals. It seems that there isn’t a lot more extra money for Medicare Locals other than what the Divisions are getting. Does this mean that the funds for the Division in our area will be split into three?

• Has the Commonwealth set a time for review of the Home and Community Care (HACC) funding arrangements in Western Australia and Victoria, or will the current arrangements be ongoing?
• Are there plans to measure or put weighting against clinician’s caseloads for the community mental health sector (aside from ICD – 10)?

• The Aged Care Information Services phone number was changed last week and there is currently no phone line for providers to call for resources and information on aged care services. What are the interim or transition arrangements until a new single point of contact is established?

Townsville – Questions taken on notice

• Queensland Health run a lot of emergency and outpatient services. Is this funding about in and out patients?
• How do I get to be nominated and involved in the Lead Clinicians Groups?

Brisbane – Questions taken on notice

• How are Medicare Locals funded by the Commonwealth and state/territory governments?
• What are the reporting requirements and reporting lines for Medicare Locals?
• What are the indicators, reporting requirements and measurements of general practice as a speciality against other disciplines of medicine?
• In regards to Medicare Locals, what arrangements are being put into place to inform the professions (doctors, pharmacists, physiotherapists and other allied health staff) as to what these bodies will actually and specifically do?
• What funding will Medicare Locals have?
• What will be the role of allied health within the Medicare Local structures?
• Will the focus of Medicare Locals be “Doctor” centric?
• How are hospitals going to achieve targets without acting in the disinterest of patients
• How will the issue of perverse incentives be policed and dealt with?
• With the introduction of Medicare Locals, is there an intent for the Medicare Locals to handle referrals to community based services or will this continue through local General Practitioners?
• Where are the nurses coming from to staff emergency departments and support elective surgery, given the nursing workforce shortage?
• With the new health registration processes, how will mental health nurses be registered and accredited?
• Will community controlled health services continue to receive funding from the Department of Health and Ageing or will they be funded through the Medicare Locals?
• Where is the review of Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) items up to?
• Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) items for General Practitioners are needed for advanced care plans and end of life procedures
• How will the public be informed of changes to the Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS)? Information needs to be provided in plain and simple language
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