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186978
Tue, 06/07/2011 - 13:59
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States agree on national health watchdog


Australia's health ministers have come to an in-principle agreement to accept the federal government's proposed National Health Performance Authority, subject to some reworking of the new legislation.
The meeting in Melbourne on Tuesday achieved consensus among the states, including Victoria, which had opposed the establishment of the authority.
Under the federal proposal, hospitals identified as underperforming by the watchdog will have 45 days' head start before being outed.
Victoria wanted the federal government to dump the authority, arguing that it was an expensive duplication of the existing Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
Before the meeting, Victorian Health Minister David Davis said the federal government could give the states and territories an extra $80 million if the AIHW, which collates national health data, simply took on a modest amount of extra work.
But the ministers emerged from the meeting having agreed in-principle to stick with the proposal for a new authority, with some changes to legislation before federal parliament.
The agreement is subject to a final reworked bill.
The respective states and territories will have 45 days to work with hospitals identified by the authority as not being up to scratch before the information is made public.
West Australian Health Minister Kim Hames said the system would give the states an opportunity to check data had been correctly reported.
"If we see that a local health network isn't performing as good as it should, firstly that information will be provided to the commonwealth minister and to the states at the same time," Dr Hames told reporters.
"It comes back to us to work with that health network to say is this information accurate, has it been properly reported, are there explanations as to why that information isn't as good as it should be because often with data there are things that haven't been taken into account."
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the performance authority would allow for proper national comparisons and make hospitals more publicly accountable.
"This is actually a much more stringent way of building a much stronger performance reporting framework," she said.
"(It is) a standard protocol that is being adopted to make sure that you can have an opportunity to test data if there is something that doesn't stack up for a short period of time and of course an opportunity to remediate any urgent problem that might be putting people at risk."
Ms Roxon said Victoria walked into the meeting opposing the authority and walked out supporting the new watchdog.
"The agreement that's been reached today, I think, puts to rest some of the argy bargy," she said.
Mr Davis denied he folded on the issue and said the commonwealth had recognised the states as managers of the hospital system.
He said the commonwealth had retreated from many intrusive aspects of the National Health Performance Authority bill.
"The commonwealth has stepped back from many of its requirements for naming and shaming (hospitals)," he told reporters during a separate news conference after the meeting.
Mr Davis warned on Monday the commonwealth was trying to force local Victorian country hospital boards to amalgamate and this would lead to hospital closures.
On Tuesday, he said the federal government now understands it won't have the final say on local hospital networks.
Mr Davis said there was agreement that rationalisation of national health reporting bodies would be discussed at future meetings.
The Gillard government wants the states and territories to sign off on the entire health agreement at the July COAG meeting.



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