Medicare ’ s bear necessities ?

ANALYSIS Antony Scholefield BUREAUCRATS have been forced to defend their decision to spend $ 4000 of taxpayer cash on teddy bears to promote Medicare ’ s GP urgent care clinics .

During a Senate Estimates hearing last month , Senator Anne Ruston began by taking exception to the allegedly extravagant cost of promoting the 40th anniversary of Medicare .

And it was Rachel Balmanno — First Assistant Secretary , People , Communication and Parliamentary Division — who bore the brunt of her rage .

But asked how much the Department of Health and Aged Care had spent on teddy bears , Ms Balmanno initially seemed surprised , explaining that the $ 18,300 cost of celebrating Medicare ’ s anniversary had involved no bear-related expenses .

However , after a moment ’ s thought , she said the bears could be related to last year ’ s rollout of 58 bulk-billing GP urgent care clinics to ease pressures on EDs .

“ So we have teddy bears in relation to urgent care clinics too ; do we ?” Senator Ruston said .

“ Not too . These are the only teddy bears I am aware of ,” said Ms Balmanno , who stressed the bear bill had only been around $ 4000 .

Unfazed , Senator Ruston asked : “ From a corporate perspective , what value proposition were the teddy bears supposed to deliver in giving people cheaper and easier access to healthcare ?”

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Senator Anne Ruston .

This seemed to be a tough question to answer .

Ms Balmanno explained that the bears were only a “ small part in a broader campaign ” related to the urgent care clinics , but Senator Ruston was unimpressed .

“ I am interested to know what the value proposition of $ 4000 worth of teddy bears was ,” Senator Ruston said .

“ When you decided , ‘ I ’ m going to get $ 4000 worth of teddy bears ,’ what was the rationale behind that decision-making ?

‘ What value proposition were the bears supposed to deliver ?’

“ How was $ 4000 worth of teddy bears actually going to deliver a better health outcome for Australians ?”

At this point , some doctors watching may have asked whether $ 4000 on teddy bears was a bigger waste of the department ’ s budget than the big dollars spent running , say , the AskMBS hotline .

But Senator Ruston added : “ I would have thought the decision-making as to access to healthcare would be made by adults , not made by children .

“ I want to understand what the thought process was in using teddy bears . Why teddy bears ?” At this point , Ms Balmanno ’ s boss intervened . Department Secretary Blair Comley acknowledged his “ reluctance to be drawn into the teddy bear debate ” but revealed that the bears were not intended for young children turning up for treatment . It turned out the teddy bears were for MPs with urgent care clinics in their electorates .

“ They ’ re in their offices so , when constituents come in , they can see a teddy bear with a bandage saying ‘ urgent care clinic ’. Then hopefully , they do not go to an ED for a service that could be met by an urgent care clinic ,” he said . At this point , Senator Ruston asked the question no doubt everyone would have asked after hearing Mr Comley ’ s response .

“ Why on earth would somebody who needed an urgent care clinic be in their MP ’ s office ? Shouldn ’ t they be seeking medical attention ?” said Senator Ruston . Mr Comley remained calm under fire . He went with the Sir Humphrey response . “ The idea of these promotional activities is not that they ’ re there in the instance you ’ re going to the urgent care clinics ,” he explained .

“ It can raise awareness ahead of an instance later on .”

Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health Senator Malarndirri McCarthy came to his rescue .

“ I think you ’ re missing a teddy bear , Senator Ruston ,” she quipped .

“ Maybe it is because I was not given a teddy bear ,” Senator Ruston replied , smiling .

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Australian Doctor 8th March issue | Page 4

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