Scalpel Taken to Hospital ‘Back Office Bureaucracy’

Victorian hospitals will be overhauled but not forced to merge following a scathing review finding the health system no longer fit for purpose. The state government has accepted all but one of 27 recommendations, either in full or principle, from an expert review that highlighted the need for “fundamental change.” A key suggestion to forcibly amalgamate some of Victoria’s 76 separate public health services was categorically rejected. “We will not be forcing hospitals to amalgamate because I’m not convinced that that’s in the best interest of patient care,” Premier Jacinta Allan told reporters in Epping on Aug. 8. The public health entities will instead be grouped into 11 local networks based on geography with shared payroll, IT, and electronic medical records to replace any paper systems....