Catallaxy Files

The Prime Minister has today announced its mental health policy, pledging to INVEST (more on that later) $277 million over four years on suicide prevention.

This compares with the Coalition’s pledge to spend $1.5 billion over four years on community-based mental health programs.

Experts in the field of mental health, including Professor Ian Hickie, have already slammed the government’s plan as inadequate.

In response, the Prime Minister maintains that mental health is a second-term priority for her government  – which seems a very strange thing to say, frankly (can the mentally ill wait that long?) - because she is not prepared to forego other important health initiatives, such as additional GP Super-Clinics; e-health initiatives; and doctor on-line/call centre. 

Elsewhere, I have argued that the GP Super-Clinics are in all likelihood a waste of money and represent an unjustifiable subvention by the government in what is essentially a private market for GP services.  And Jim Butler asks the very pertinent question: what will happen in the event of one or more of these GP Super-Clinics failing?

As to the e-health area, this seems to have been dragging on and on, with very little to show for all the effort and expenditure (sorry INVESTMENT) over many years.  On the face of it, digitising health records seems like a good idea but whether top-down imposed solutions can ever be made to work is highly debatable.  There seem to be enough problems even at the hospital level with computerised record-keeping and the inadequate investment (OK to use the term in this context) in both hardware and software.

As to the doctor on-line/call centre, I would like first to see an evaluation of the nurse on-line/call centre iniative already in operation.  According to some information given to me, a call to the nurse at the call centre almost invariably leads to the suggestion that the patient present at the ED of the local public hospital.  That patient often then feels a sense of entitlement to priority treatment because of this ‘referral’, which in turn can lead to problems with the triage process.

On the point of INVESTMENT, has anyone been noticing that the Prime Minister now never uses the word spending; it is always investment.  Investment in education, investment in health, investment in our rail system, etc.  Was it also investment in roof insulation; investment in green loans; investment in regional development grants; investment in unwanted school halls.  I guess so.