20 Implementing post-injury rehabilitation policy
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM At the start of the 1980s the economic vitality of the state of Victoria was compromised by a range of problems associated with the rising cost of…
MEDICAL ASSISSTANT
10 Regulating complementary and alternative medicine practitioners
This chapter reviews the background to recent policy developments in relation to the registration of Chinese medicine, naturopathy and western herbal medicine (WHM) and discusses what factors have shaped policy…
7 The public service and health
to the directions set by the government of the day’, but beyond that, it should be ‘innovative and imaginative’. The manner of giving advice should be ‘robust’, as secretaries must…
21 Achieving uniformity in food hygiene regulation
THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL FOOD STANDARDS Within Australia’s federal system, the regulation of food standards has been the responsibility of the states and territories. This resulted in significant differences between…
19 Accommodating new technology: robotics in prostate cancer surgery
A PERENNIAL AND AN EMERGING PROBLEM The introduction of any new technology into hospitals is a perennial problem, as it is in institutions generally. However, when looking at a specific,…
17 Reform of the pharmaceutical benefits scheme
Pharmacists will no longer be able to keep the difference between the price paid by the government for generic drugs and the lower price charged by the manufacturer. But they…
16 The ageing population: in search of a policy
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM AND THE VARIABILITY OF STATISTICS In 2006 the proportion of the population made up of those 65 years and over was just over 13%. Notwithstanding flood, fire,…
6 Federalism and health
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM Policy problems addressed through federal–state relations in health usually centre on ‘fiscal squabbles’, ‘waiting’ and ‘waste’. ‘Fiscal squabbles’ break out between different levels of government when one…
15 Government, medical error, and problem definition
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM For this chapter, a policy problem is taken to be one that receives government’s attention and leads to responses like advocacy, reform, funding, or regulation.2 In the…
13 Dilemmas in end-of-life care: the Maria Korp case
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM The ageing of the population and advances in medical technology have combined to create a problem in making some decisions about medical treatment. In particular, the issues…
