Care in the Health Care System - Essay Example

 Care in the Health care system Care in the Health care system 1 1 Introduction 2 Garling Report: 3 Recommendations of the Report: 4 Health care indicators: 6 Reference: 7 Abstract: In the following paper there shall be conducted a detailed discussion on the problems that are being faced in the public health sector and the service that is extended to the patients. The discussion will be conducted on the basis of the Garling report that was made in the year of 2008, and the implementation of the health program Caring Together, the health action plan for NSW, which has been designed on the basis of the Garling Report to help ensure that the service in the clinical care improves and becomes more sensitive to the needs of the patients. Introduction Health is an important issue, and the role that the health sector has played in the maintenance of the society has increased in the past century. The state today is getting more and more involved in the promotion of the health sector among the citizens, and there are various diseases that are emerging as global threats. Thus, the promotion of the health organization today is of great significance to ensure that these can be dealt with, so that a more healthy society can be established. It has been seen in the recent study of the society that the various sectors are developing faster as the demands for services are increasing rapidly. Promotion of health programs is important in the current global scenario as most of the individuals reflect the signs of some disease of the other without realizing it, and it is only through the establishment and promotion of various health programs that the individuals can be made aware of these problems and there can be ensured that these can be addressed. This holds true to almost all the spheres of public life including medicine. There has been observed that in the year of 2007, in the area of NSW there came forward a number of cases of complain of insufficient practices that were being undertaken in the public hospitals (Salmon J, Timperio A, 2007). As has been clearly stated by Martin B Van Der Weyden in his editorial which reviewed the public health care system in NSW- “Public hospitals are severely stressed and sick (Lucas K, Lloyd BB, 2005). They are afflicted by bureaucratic inertia, and riven with mistrust, poor communication and bullying. To add to their woes, they are chronically under-resourced and understaffed. To the outsider, they appear to be a collection of islands, with health professionals on one island, and administrators, health boards and bureaucrats on others; all are surrounded by seas of silence. Their political masters are at a loss over what to do or where to turn and, in desperation; they resort to conducting inquiries when media reports of adverse hospital incidents become political millstones. In short, there is a pervasive sense of loss — loss of control, loss of direction, and loss of ownership by the hospitals’ serving health professionals, politicians, and the community they are meant to serve.” Garling Report: The Garling Commission was set up in the year of 2008 to look into the problems that were being faced in the public health sector in the area of NSW (Wallace N, Metherell M, 2008). The commission was headed by Peter Garling and the team included 61 other professionals, who conducted over 39 public hearings. The commission also reviewed almost over 1200 submissions and analysed more than 30, 000 documents so s to ensure that a complete and holistic view of the existing situation could be sketched out and that the entire system that was in place could be reviewed and analysed (Stewart GJ, Dwyer JM, Goulston KJ, 2006). The commission looked at all the various stages of functioning of the health care system, and in the year of 2008 came up with the Garling report which reviewed the entire system and identified problems that existed within the system including bullying, disco-ordination, and lack of sympathy and quality service (Wallace N, 2007). The report also made a number of recommendations. The report was over 1200 pages and it made a total of 139 recommendations (Travaglia J F, Lloyd J E, Braithwaite J, 2008). The most important recommendation that was made in the report under the Garling commission was that the changes that should be made should be implemented from the lower ranks and should include every office. Recommendations of the Report: The report had made certain specific recommendations with regards to technology and training of the staff, but the area of bullying was dealt with in an ambiguous manner in the report. Most of the recommendations of the Garling report were incorporated into the system through the Caring Together program, which was incorporated in the year of 2009 by the government into the health care program to ensure that the system can be improved and the public hospitals can function in a more efficient manner (Robotham J, 2008). The report also suggested that the government had better refund all those patients who had been infected in the hospital due to mal practices where the staff of the hospitals was not adequately washing their hands (Wallace N, Smith A, 2008). According to the commission the government should bear the cost of the treatment of such infections. Garling also warned that there was a dearth of qualified doctors that may be faced in the future. The report clearly stated- “To start with, a new culture needs to take root which sees the patient's needs as the paramount central concern of the system and not the convenience of the clinicians and administrators. Given the demographic changes and rising costs, it is the case that we have entered into a period of crisis for a public hospital system which has always been free and accessible to all (C Collegian). We are on the brink of seeing whether the public system can survive and flourish or whether it will become a relic of better times.” The report made a number of recommendations to ensure that there was put into place a more responsible and responsive system of health care to replace the existing system where there had come forward many instances of mismanagement and lack of coordination (NSW Health). In the 136th recommendation of the report the Garling commission states in section c of the recommendation that there should be in place a system of care indicators for each patient of each unit that would be circulated on a monthly basis among the staff of the public hospitals ((Weyden M B V D, 2004)). It says- “that the Chief Executive publish to all staff on a monthly basis, the patient care performance status of each units or wards, hospitals and the entire area, in accordance with the criteria earlier recommended.” (Weyden M B V D, 2009) Health care indicators: There has to be ensured that there are in place proper health care indicators to ensure that the services that are being provided are up to the standards that need to be maintained. In the following section of the paper these indicators have been enumerated: Firstly, there has to be ensured that there are charts in place that monitor the various procedures and services that a patient is undergoing and these should be completed on a daily basis (Menadue J, 2008). These charts can be reviewed on a monthly basis to look at the various facilities that the patients are being extended and ensure that the functioning of the staff who are taking care of the patients are monitored. The second indicator can be developed by studying the improvement and progress of the patients who are under the hospital care and look at the various reasons for the conditions, if they are related to the services provided or due to medical reasons (Stewart GJ, Dwyer JM, 2009). The third indicator can be developed by conducting a periodic survey among the patients to gauze their reaction to the services that they are experiencing through the circulation of a questionnaire among the patients to ensure that a feedback is maintained and communication can be established between the patients and the authority so that any problems that may be in the system can be rectified by the chief executive of the hospitals. These are some of the health care indicators that can be adopted into the system of the health care in accordance to the Garling report to ensure that a well responsive system of health care is developed. Reference: C Collegian, Journal of the Royal College of Nursing Australia, Vol 9 (2) Lucas K, Lloyd BB (2005), Health promotion: evidence and experience. London & Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005 Menadue J, (2008), Policy is easy, implementation is hard, The Medical Journal of Australia, (189), pp 384-381. NSW Health, Caring together: The Health Action Plan for NSW, accessed on May 2010-05-08 at http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2009/caring_together_hap.html Robotham J (2008), Westmead doctors seek boss’s removal, Sydney Morning Herald, December 5th 2008. Salmon J, Timperio A (2007), Prevalence, trends and environmental influences on child and youth physical activity Med Sport Sci Vol 50; pp 183- 192 Stewart GJ, Dwyer JM, Goulston KJ, (2006), The Greater Metropolitan Clinical taskforce: an Australian model for clinician governance, Editorial, The Medical Journal of Australia, August 2006, (184), pp 597-599. Stewart GJ, Dwyer JM, (2009), Implementation of the Garling recommendations can offer real hope for NSW hospitals, The Medical Journal of Australia, (190), pp 80-82. The Garling Report, (2008). Travaglia J F, Lloyd J E, Braithwaite J, (2008), Another enquiry into public hospitals, Editorial, The Medical Journal of Australia, (188), pp 437-438. Wallace N, Smith A, (2008), Public Hospitals on ‘brink of collapse’, November 28, 2008 The Sydney Morning Herald Wallace N, (2007), Minor cases clog hospitals, December 2, 2007, The Sydney Morning Herald Wallace N, Metherell M, (2008), Packed Hospitals cause 1500 deaths, November 5, 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald Weyden M B V D, (2009), In the wake of the Garling inquiry into NSW public hospitals: a change of cultures, Editorial, The Medical Journal of Australia, (190) pp 51-52. Weyden M B V D, (2004), The cam affair, an isolated incident or destined to be repeated?, Editorial, The Medical Journal of Australia, (180), pp 100-101. Read More