Recession proof medicine (for some)
Bankwest’s national overview of the Medical and Other Health Care Services, which excludes hospitals, is a chronicle of our times. On one side of the ledger, it tells a story of industry expansion and growing employment and salaries, on the other, the inevitable consequence of the former, an increased cost burden on the taxpayer. It studied data from private sector GPs and specialists, pathology, allied health and other services. It is a sector responsible at this time, within the broader health care and social assistance industry, for 65.9% of its income, 80.1% of its profits yet only 36.6% of its employment. Even with this said, employment had risen 83.6% over the past 10 years in this subset, its profit margins were 33.2% higher than the all-industry average of 10.9% (finance sector excepted). In 2014-16 the total costs of the subset had risen to $41.8b while income had grown to $60.2b. There were 9564 operators in WA in this period, 5056 had turnovers of between $200,000 and $2m (or 3.8%). WA employment data indicated 5469 were non-employing, 3962 employed 1-19 people, 124 employed 20-199 and nine had 200+ employees. This is an 8% contraction of the workforce The report projects a five-year growth rate of 3.3% a year to $68.2m driven largely on the back of the ageing population, government expenditure (which is expected to rise to $79.2b in 2020-21), higher disposable income, a higher birth rate and more people visiting GPs. Apparently in 2014-15, 83.7% of the population aged over 15 visited a GP once a year or more or 15.9m visits up from 15.6m the previous year.
Crescent rising
The Sydney based Crescent Capital has been busy in the dental space in the past few months. Its National Dental Care ‘roll-up’ has acquired DB Dental and its 17 multi-surgery practices in Perth for an undisclosed sum. In June 2015 Crescent Capital bought up Healthscope’s pathology business. Its other health interests include National Hearing Care which has branches in WA and is also backer of the largest after hours provider National Home Doctor Service (see p16 for a run-down on GP after hours).
Corporate deckchairs
Last month we learnt about Henry Bateman’s launch into GP corporate land, in another twist the CEO of Sonic Clinical Services, Dr Malcolm Parmenter, has resigned to become the CEO of rival Primary Healthcare. Dr Parmenter, who also heads up IPN, Sonic’s primary care division, will take up his new role in September. But what is a blow for Sonic, could be a boon for MediTracker, the smartphone app developed by Precedence Health Care for patients to view their medical summary. IPN is rolling out MediTracker across its 180 practices nationally over the next few months giving two million people the chance to have mobile access to their GP medical record summaries. Dr Parmenter might just see the benefit of rolling it out at Primary too.
Political sweetners
The anti-sugar lobby was hoping to get some action when Australian and New Zealand ministers responsible for food safety met last month. If there’s any movement, it’s at a snail’s pace. In November, Ministers agreed to a program that would investigate labelling to inform consumers about sugars contained in their food. Now they have agreed to “further evidence gathering activities” by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) which would report in November. A tax seems a long way away. Health Minister David Gillespie in response to a Grattan Institute report urging a sugar tax said he regularly told his patients to lose weight by going on the ELF (East Less Food) and the DME (Do More Exercise) program. “You are what you eat but also a result of how often and how much you eat. We are not food fascists, we let people choose what they eat. We are trying to help people make better, wiser, more nutritious choices.” That sounds like a no from him.
HaDSCO – who cares?
HaDSCO’s annual report for 2015-16 said it handled 1,777 complaints about health services in WA. The gender mix was about 50:50 with 70% of complaints from the affected adult (while 16% came from a child or parent, and 8% came from a partner or spouse). Nearly half complaints involved more than one issue, and the most popular complaints were about ‘Treatment’ (32%; mostly outcomes or complications), ‘Fees and costs’ (14%; mostly billing practices) and ‘Communication and information’ (14%; mostly wrong attitude and manner). Private and public complaints were roughly the same in type and not-for-profits took longer to resolve things. Complaints about disability services and mental health services were small in comparison.
By the Numbers
53,420… The number of separations paid by private insurance companies in public hospitals in WA in 2015-16. This represents an increase on average of 10.5% each year between 2011-12 and 2015-16
Admitted Patient Care 2015-16
· Public hospitals in WA recorded 630,739 separations (a 5% increase on 2014-15)
· Private hospitals in WA recorded 497,498 separations (a 3.5% increase on 2014-15)
· Same-day separations in WA public hospitals reached 128 per 1000 population; the rate in WA private hospitals was 131.4 per 1000
· More women than men in WA were treated in hospital in 2015-16 – 320,877 women compared with 309,860
· Diseases of the digestive system accounted for the most presentations of specific symptoms to WA public hospitals (23,117) followed by neoplasms (15,132)
· In WA private hospitals the most presentations were for diseases of the digestive system (40,031) followed by diseases of the eye and adnexa (30,737)