Name: Interview with a doctor: Owen Ung on the medical system during COVID
Uploaded: 2023-04-03T23:23:36.975Z
Duration: 448.3
Description: Professor Owen Ung talks about his opinion on the medical system during COVID, giving his opinion on the difference between Private and Public healthcare.

Professor Owen Ung 500MB.mp4

Owen Ung Transcript 500MB.vtt

Subtitles

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I'm Owen Ung, I'm a surgeon.

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My main interest is breast

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and endocrine surgery,

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but I've been in surgical

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practice for more than 30

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years, in private, public

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and academic practice.

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I'd sit on the, council

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for the Royal Australian

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College of Surgeons and also

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Federal Council for the ama.

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And I've had a long standing

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interest in, health insurance.

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Healthcare in general,

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as well as public health.

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We are bouncing back.

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We're certainly not

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there at the moment.

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So Covid was a fairly big hit.

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In my presentation, I'll

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talk about waiting times, the

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blowout of elective surgery.

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Certainly as the

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pandemic comes to an end.

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Things will improve,

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but we're actually not

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out of the pandemic yet.

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So it's still having its

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impacts and we're still

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getting the hangover of, lack

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of staff in our hospitals,

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et cetera, et cetera.

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Well, public and private

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healthcare in Australia

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is really quite symbiotic.

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So we've got a

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unique health system.

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And one thing we can pride

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ourselves on is we deliver

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an exceptional level

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of healthcare, whether

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it's public or private.

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I think we have one of the

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best public health systems,

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in the world, in, in terms

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of the delivery of care.

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And I know we talk a lot about

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waiting times and dignity

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getting through the system.

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But there are, there are many

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western countries that have,

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that have bigger struggles.

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Having said that, there's room

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for a lot more improvement

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and, and public health has,

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you know, for quite a while

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now, I think been underfunded.

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On the private side,

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again, we deliver really

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top-notch private care.

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It's really a great

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service for elective

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surgery and elective care.

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But for, you know, really,

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emergency care and really

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severe illness,  we're

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probably still best supported

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by our public health system.

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Yeah.

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Although obviously

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we've got some very top

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tier private hospitals.

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They work symbiotically

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in the, you know, probably

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about, just under half

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of our population are

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private health insurance.

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Probably about 60% of our

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elective services done

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in the private sector.

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But there's still a, a great

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portion of the population

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that have no ability to

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access the private sector

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and need quality care

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in the public sector.

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If our, if the private

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sector don't, continue to

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deliver that level of care.

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And those patients are

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just gonna flow into

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the public sector.

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And as I said, I think

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the public sector's

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already at capacity.

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So we've got a delicate

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balance, between the public

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and the private sector.

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And a lot of us, people like

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myself, who are surgeons, work

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across both those sectors,

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right?

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So I'm gonna talk about

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a lot of the problems.

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I don't know if I've

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got all the solutions.

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We've had successive federal

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governments have, have

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tried to and put incentives

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in to keep, keep as many

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of the people as we can in

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private health, so they're

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the private health incentive

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schemes and so forth.

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As time goes by, they're,

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they're, it's starting to

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wane because the problem is

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that some of our younger.

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Members of the population

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don't see the value

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proposition of private health

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insurance and private health

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insurance is different from

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other types of insurance

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because it's community rated,

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we have to set a premium

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that's fairly similar for all.

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So what you get for your

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insurance is really what

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the policy has to offer as

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opposed to what your risk may

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be, whereas other types of

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insurance are risk related.

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The other thing with

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private health insurance

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is that young people need

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to understand that they're

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in it for the long haul.

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They may not need the

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insurance now, but they

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certainly will need it,

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when they're in their

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sixties and seventies.

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And we have an

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aging population.

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So, there's a lot we need

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to do, to keep people into

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health insurance and encourage

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more into health insurance.

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Well, we've got the public

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and the private sector.

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In an ideal world, you

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could say we just pour

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money into the public

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sector and it'll happen, but

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that, that won't actually

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solve the problem cause.

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Staffing is a problem.

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So, you know, we've lost a lot

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of staff, coming out of the

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pandemic, but even before the

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pandemic, our public hospitals

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were already at the capacity.

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So,  it's not a simple matter

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of just turning on the tap

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or,  creating more hours of

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work or more public, , lists.

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, you actually need

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staff to do that.

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In the private system, they've

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got the same problem as well.

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They are the problems of

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access and bed block that

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public systems have because

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public hospitals are dealing

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with emergency management.

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We've got a flu, flu

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pandemic happening now as

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well as a covid pandemic.

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And when you block beds,

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with,  other emergent

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problems and that has an

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effect on elective surgery.

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In the private sector, it's

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probably not that, but more

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the problems with staffing

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and then you have flow of

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staff to and from those.

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And then we have, the other

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problem is that we've not

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been able to get overseas

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staff during the pandemic.

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So as we come out of it,

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hopefully we might be able

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to track some more staff.

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In the public sector, it's

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gonna require more funding,

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in the private sector.

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, it's gonna require,

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some better solutions

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for patients and how

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they traverse the system

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because one of the big,

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negatives for patients is

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their out-of-pocket expenses.

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And that's gonna be an

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ongoing issue with the cost

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of delivering healthcare.

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So conferences like this

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are gonna need to address

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that issue of how, how do

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they make private health

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insurance more attractive

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for people who are

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worried about large

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out-of-pocket expenses.

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As a, as a surgeon and

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someone who delivers private

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care and has to set a fee,

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you know, I'd have to say

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that the current settings

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are not sustainable for the

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primary delivers of care.

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So something is gonna have

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to be done to improve, that

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gap between what, what needs

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to be charged for delivery.

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What patients can afford

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to pay and what insurances

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are prepared to cover.

Expert Insight

Professor Owen Ung talks about his opinion on the medical system during COVID, giving his opinion on the difference between Private and Public healthcare.

Healthcare

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owen-ung-MIGA-board-CORRECT-4.jpg

Owen Ung

Breast and Endocrine Surgeon, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and STARS, Professor Faculty of Medicine, Academy of Surgery, University of Queensland and Director

 What's your opinion on how the medical system in Australia has bounced back from COVID?

 Can you speak to the difference in experience between Private and Public healthcare? 