The Australian Medical Association is deeply concerned by the planned closures of maternity services in Hobart and Darwin.
These closures are the latest in a long list of private hospitals that have closed or downgraded their services in critical areas such as maternity care, mental health and reconstructive surgery.
AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen said Healthscope's announcement that it would close maternity wards in hospitals in Hobart and Darwin later this year should ring alarm bells for the long-term viability of the private health system.
"The importance of maternity services simply cannot be overstated, and those who purchase private health insurance deserve to do so with the confidence they will get the care they need," Dr McMullen said.
"Maternity services are like the canary in the coalmine and these latest closures announced by Healthscope should further emphasise the urgent need for reform to the private health sector.
"We also need to consider the broader impacts on our whole health system. Past closures of private maternity services have led to serious challenges for many women and public maternity services."
AMA Tasmania President Dr Michael Lumsden-Steel said the planned closure in Hobart would leave only one remaining private maternity unit for the entire state of Tasmania, with the public hospital system providing the north and northwest obstetric services.
"We have expressed concerns that two services are not viable for the southern Tasmanian private patient population due to extreme pressures on midwife staffing," Dr Lumsden-Steel said.
"The solution must be focused on training, attraction, and retaining more midwives and to fund maternity care properly."
AMA NT Vice President Dr John Zorbas said: "The closure of the only private maternity service in Darwin means women will have to travel many thousands of kilometres away from home and family to use their private health cover. Additionally, this will place significant stress on an already stretched public hospital."
The AMA has released a recent submission to the Private Health CEO Forum , which supports a range of changes proposed by the forum, but also calls for bolder reform to the sector as the forum also looks at longer term changes.
"The private health system needs reform beyond changes to how insurers pay hospitals for services or how contracts are negotiated; it needs reforms that improve the entire system and deliver benefits for all involved — clinicians, consumers and government too," Dr McMullen said.
"Our submission calls for a thorough review of the way the private health insurance product tier categorisation system works, given the increasingly unaffordable price of gold tier policies.
"We also propose a range of policy options to improve access to private maternity cover, including reviewing the tier level that includes maternity cover and options for patients to access maternity cover without a 12-month wait if it is not included in their cover level.
"The AMA is keen to ensure that any changes to policy settings for the private health sector are backed by robust economic modelling."
Dr McMullen said the changes put forward by the forum were a welcome step, but more significant reform is needed.
"Rather than lurching from one crisis to the next, we need stable, ongoing reform and improvement. That's why the AMA continues to call for the establishment of a Private Health System Authority, because for a system that delivers the overwhelming majority of our elective surgery, patients deserve more peace of mind than this," Dr McMullen said.
