New public hospital culture a major threat to our free health care

Our treasured public hospitals are being ravaged by a new culture that’s putting profits before patients, but there are ways we can stop it before it spirals out of control, writes Sue Dunlevy.

Public hospitals have been a treasured institution, a place where you are entitled to free care no matter what your income but a new culture that puts profits ahead of patient care is undermining that.

When you can’t even see a healthcare professional in a public hospital emergency department unless you’ve first been grilled by an administrative officer about whether you will bill your health fund, something is wrong.

Staff working at public hospitals are being hired solely to persuade people to bill their health fund for care that should be free and they are not taking no for an answer.

Former Concord Hospital worker turned whistleblower Frank Collins said he was threatened with the sack because he would not pursue patients to get them to bill their health fund. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Its hospital policy to pursue patients multiple times to ask them to bill their health fund and the practice goes on even when after the patient dies. In this case grieving relatives are badgered to agree to charge the deceased’s health fund.

Revelations that it even happens when patients are unconscious and just before they go under an anaesthetic raise questions about whether people have actually given proper consent.

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Staff in at least one public hospital are disciplined if they fail to convert every health fund member to billing their health fund and they are embarrassed and disgusted by their job.

The fact they are speaking out and quitting their job speaks volumes about how they view this practice.

If a public hospital administrative officer is grilling you over whether you will bill your health fund, something is wrong. Picture: Supplied

Let’s get one thing clear — every Australian is entitled to be treated for free in a public hospital.

And health fund members who think they are helping out the hospital by charging their care to their health fund should remember that every time they do that they are adding to their premium costs.

Health funds are currently funding $1.6 billion a year of care in public hospitals and that’s adding around $92 to the average annual premium of health fund members.

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Before this profit making practice further undermines public trust in public hospitals we need a charter that gets hospital administrators off patients backs and puts health care, not money, back at the centre of the system.

This charter should include the following elements:

- Public hospitals should only be able to ask emergency department patients once if they wish to bill their health fund and must explain they are full entitled to free care under Medicare.

- There should be a cooling-off period in which patients can check with their health fund if their policy will cover any likely treatment they will have in the public hospital.

- Patients who bill their health fund must get choice of doctor.

- Patients must not receive any bills for out of pocket expenses if they use their health cover in a public hospital.