Fed: Medical hotline would contain local information: Abbott

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2006
Fed: Medical hotline would contain local information: Abbott

SYDNEY, Feb 1 AAP - Any future national medical hotline would have to have the latest
up-to-date information for patients no matter where they live in Australia, Health Minister
Tony Abbott says.

Plans for the proposed hotline will be discussed by state and territory leaders at
this month's Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra.

Some critics fear that if a national call centre is set up it will not have enough
detailed local information for patients needing medical help.

Mr Abbott said the states and territories would choose whether the hotline was a national
service with a sophisticated computer service filled with local information or a network
of local call centres.

"I can certainly understand the affection that local people always have for the local
product," he told ABC Radio, adding that any future national call centre would not be
outsourced overseas.

"But I think that it would also be possible, if COAG so decides to run an effective
national call centre, if you had access to very detailed up-to-date information about
precisely what services were available in precisely what locations."

Currently, a local area medical hotline is running in the NSW Hunter region. Tasmania,
Western Australia and the ACT have state-wide services.

Mr Abbott said it would make sense for the states and territories to choose the cheapest
model possible.

"We (the federal government) think that in principle these call centres make sense.

"But we also need to have an eye to efficiency and I think that a fair-minded study
of the various call centres would suggest that each of them does a good job," he said.

"And I don't think that it would be unfair or unreasonable or ineffective to in the
end decide that the least-cost version of the existing call centres probably makes the
most sense for a national operation."

Mr Abbott also said he supported calls by some doctors for some public hospitals to
close down their emergency departments so doctors could be free to focus on reducing elective
surgery waiting lists.

"If I ran public hospitals I'd certainly consider it, but I don't run public hospitals," he said.

AAP bt/nf/cjh/de

KEYWORD: HOTLINE ABBBOTT

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.