Dear Australian Government Department of Health,
The National Association of Practising Psychiatrists (NAPP) is very concerned about the lack of consultation time made available to assess the Private Health Insurance Consultation – Second Wave Reforms, especially with regard to Consultation 3. The time for affected parties, especially physicians providing psychiatric services, has been too brief. Please provide an extension of time until at least the end of February for our organisation to provide you a proper submission.
In the interim, our brief response to this application is to raise concerns about the consequences of any implementation of these reforms. We are concerned that these proposals will deprive patients of
(1) choice of mental health psychiatrist provider,
(2) ready access to inpatient psychiatric treatment in private hospital,
(3) appropriate mental health treatment in both inpatient and outpatient settings, and
(4) expose patients to treatment by mental heath providers who are not properly supervised, monitored and directed by the treating psychiatrist and general practitioner.
I look forward to your reply.
Prof Philip Morris AM
President NAPP
