Australian Medical Association calls for cuts to “futile care” to make Medicare sustainable

AUSTRALIA (New South Wales) | The Daily Telegraph (Surrey Hills) – 15 January 2015 – Cutting “futile care” would be better than slashing GP funding to make Medicare sus-tainable, the Australian Medical Association has declared. The Association’s (South Aus-tralia) president, Patricia Montanaro, says savings can be made by cutting expensive treatments that offer no prospect of length-ening or improving life. “We’re continuing to push treatments that may not be what – if you could explain them to the patient and had other options for them – they would choose,” she said. “Futile care is when no amount of medical intervention would pro-long your life expectancy. This is where the thrust of care should be supported care – palliative care. (It’s) usually in the last three months of life, where being hooked up to machines doesn’t make a difference.”..read more

An article from Media Watch, compiled and annotated by Barry R. Ashpole (Ontario, Canada). More reports can be found at IPCRC.NET