With no information forth coming from the Policy Review team, having exhausted all avenues within QHealth and with the ringing of “there’s no more funding for palliative care” in my ears, it was off to Canberra for a meeting with the Federal Health Minister Hon. Greg Hunt – arranged by our local federal MP Llew O’Brien. A meeting with the the Shadow Health Minister Catherine King was also arranged through Senator Murray Watts office. The messaging was simple
Does the current Federal Health department or the Labor Party wish to provide the leadership needed to implement the cost neutral recommendations of the Productivity Commission, thus improving access to home based care for all Australians with all the societal and political goodwill this will engender?
To quote Commissioner Stephen King in recent correspondence
“As the Productivity commission is generally known for being quite restrained in our recommendations. I think you can quite rightly point out that when a conservative economic body considers the shortage of end-of-life care to be a problem for both the economy and for society, it is time to take action.”
