[AusNOG] NBN Co CEO Quigley Speech 20100818

[John Edwards]

On 19/08/2010, at 4:56 PM, Darren Moss wrote:
> 
> Why not put the money into hospitals, aged and health care (face it, we are all going to need it at some stage) and focus on the services our community really needs.

Spend some time at an aged care facility - the non-profit ones will happily accept you as a volunteer if you provide an unblemished  police report.

When an elderly person at a nursing home has a health problem the nurses cannot handle, if their regular doctor is unavailable then the locum gets called out.

This guy who is likely to have english as a second language needs to then read through 50 years of hand-scrawled medical history to decide whether it's ok to give the old person a panadol or not given the grand variety of prescription medications the patient is already taking. Not wanting to risk his malpractice insurance with a faulty diagnosis, he does what everyone expects him to do - sends the patient to hospital where they can get closer attention.

There the patient is kept under observation for a few days, while they're exposed to other hospital contagions. They're eventually sent back to the nursing home with yet another prescription to add to their long list.

Lather, rinse, repeat until the end.

With an NBN we get the following to assist with this situation
- better likelihood of an eHealth system with accurate, readable, up to date and non-conflicting records
- better chance of getting a consult with a regular doctor who is already familiar with your problems
- if the problem is too serious for a locum/GP, they can refer to a specialist instantly - not with an appointment in 2 weeks time
- the same locum can now do 5 consults in the same time it might take him to drive someplace and wait for a nurse to direct him to the patient
- paves the way for practitioner-nurses to act as remote-hands for doctors (this is one will probably have to wait for another election - more politics involved)
- reduced use of facilities means that when you do have to visit a hospital you'll get better service
- the elderly will be able to stay in their family home longer, which will allow them to live more meaningful and independent lives

The solution to Australia's health is to do what it takes to keep people out of Hospitals, not spend more money on buildings for sick people. 

There are only so many health resources to go around - an efficient eHealth system will be a better outcome than many other politically motivated medical spending initiatives, which usually just mean building more beds with no-one to staff them.

John

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