Current Health Care System in Australia-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Hierarchy and power are intrinsic to the current health care system in Australia. Answer: Introduction In the 20th century, a term called medical dominance introduced prior to which most of the population use to take consultations from midwives, chemists or herbalists. Along with the term, medical dominance Peter Chamerlen introduced obstetrical forceps which helps the user to deliver a child without any complications. This concept enabled male doctors to be present during surgeries as they had the exclusive rights on these forceps (Lockwood, Friedman Christian, 2015). Doctors also introduced various professional strategies which gave a boost to their practice and undermine the practice of midwives. Gradually doctors started charging high fees from women by convincing them of the danger in childbirth and incapability of midwives. It became a habit, doctors deliberately starting making every pregnancy a risky one, moreover the childrens bureau conducted a campaign wherein people were educated about the biomedical model of pregnancy and childbirth, and it was a deliberate effort to dem oralize the role of midwives among people permanently (Lockwood, Friedman Christian, 2015). Obstetrics was a newly introduced concept in the year 1920s and in order to justify the high cost and regular customer base doctors needed regular teachings and medical sessions, despite all these loop holes doctors were still getting a license for this profession by using their medical association powers and gradually were imposing legal sanctions against midwives. In Australia, doctors were gaining power by adopting two political strategies one is they formed a medical association which was unifying them against other professions and secondly they forced governments to ban other practitioners from practicing (Lockwood, Friedman Christian, 2015). For instance, in 1862, the Victorian government gave powers to doctors to sue people for non-payment, sign death certificates and right to use medical titles. All these powers ultimately declared doctors as experts. Now if we talk about hierarchy, in Australian health care system it is characterized by occupational hierarchy, where doctors are supreme power. This means that they are not under the direct control of any other occupation; moreover, they have the authority to control other health workers (Turan Turan, 2016). Historically, it has been observed that more of the doctors are male and more of the nurses are females, with this division of labour in the health care system it is the nurse who comes to doctor always. But later in the 1970s, there was a boom in the entry of men into the nurse profession and some commentators started seeing it as a shift in the ideology of nursing as a feminine profile. Some studies also show that male nurses are most likely preferable in the positions which demand advancement into specialized areas of nursing and nursing education (Turan Turan, 2016). Discussion The healthcare industry is among one of the huge social institutions which people use throughout their lives, every group and culture has different viewpoints of seeing the industry. Specially, it viewed differently by three sociological theories the interactions, functionalist, and conflict. All of the three perspectives can be easily applied to the industry and it focuses on social relation building which influences peoples behaviour, human groups, and societies. Initially, we will discuss the events which lead to the current health care system (Elshaug, Hiller, Tunis Moss, 2007). In the early 1920s, in Australia, there were three issues which were classified as overuse, underuse, and misuse. Overuse referred to as the provisions of service with the harm of exceeding potential benefits. Underuse means that when we could have provided better outcomes but was not able to do so and misuse means intentionally created complications which could be avoided. But in the year 1970, the Aust ralian healthcare industry started focusing on quality assurance by extending hospitals to include aged care facilities, focusing on evidence based medicines and health outcomes (Reading, 2007). Natural human phenomena like death, birth, and pain are no more realm of normalcy and have been incorporated into the medical discourse. Being overweight, underweight, ageing, or adolescence everything now comes under the medical microscope (Volchok, 2005). Health professionals were now answerable for quality measurements, nursing quality measures were introduced on a large scale along with the quality managers which were placed in hospitals and other health agencies. Many Australian states and territories introduced patient complaint commission. Many public hospital budgets were cut and new process CASEMIX introduced as incentive where treatment cost should not be exceeded (Volchok, 2005). But the principle of CASEMIX remains in controversies as in order to cut the cost, it may override the principle of best practice. Other factors which affected the cost were consumer demand, increase in wages and salaries, over servicing and medical fraud and use of high technology. Various approaches to cut the cost were implemented in Australia which included limiting the number of subsidies under PBS and MBS resulting in the best of practice behavior. An allied health professional, according to their association the AHPA, involves professionals who; have client contact, a professional association, a university course and standards and assessment procedures (Volchok, 2005). They have a code of ethics and a defined scope of practice. Like the work of nurses, allied health professionals are also dominated and supervised by the medical profession. Like medicine, each discipline tries to align itself with science in order to gain legitimacy and claims a form of truth tested in research. By becoming legitimate the discipline can gain access to recourses like government funded consultat ions, the university system and a greater charge of the health market (Volchok, 2005). Now if we correlate the conflict theory with Australian health care system then we can say that conflict theory has contributed to our understanding of system but has many drawbacks related to inequalities among healthcare system like age, gender. There are various organizations who are now working with both men and women. Some other conflict theorists also discussed that there is a relationship between premature death and poverty (Duncan, 2010). If we correlate this with private hospitals it has been observed that many medical types of the council are not giving any type of free services to people who are below poverty lines. This is the same with public hospitals; they are misusing their powers under the influence of many political references. Today the unstoppable use of dangerous chemicals in the production of medicines is probably an area of concern and it is affecting badly the health of workers (Duncan, 2010). The Australian government provides a universal taxpayer funded syst em across all hospitals and medical treatments known as Medicare, they also get pharmaceutical benefits under pharmacy act. As per researchers, it has been observed that poor use hospitals more often than rich people but they do not get any benefit neither they are covered under any scheme (Duncan, 2010). There is another perspective called functionalist perspective under which it emphasizes the way in which part of society is structured to maintain its stability. This means that one should avoid being sick so that not too many are released from their societal responsibilities and if this happens than it will prevent our society from being stable and functional (Ameri, 2015). There is also a role called sick role where in whenever anyone gets sick then they take off from social responsibilities by either staying at home or seeking medical help. Now here comes the role of doctor, it is his prime responsibility to check whether a person is genuinely sick or not if he is then providing him with the medical help. But here also doctors have made it a profession, not to give genuine advice to patients and charge maximum money from them (Ameri, 2015). As per the current Australian Bureau of Statistics survey, national health survey and a national survey of wellbeing it has been observed that 45% of an individuals age between 17-82 are being mistreated by doctors. There is a controversy in Australia that medical care is it right or a commodity which says that if medical care provided in Australian health care system is right then it should provide access to all citizens and if it is a commodity then doctors will keep on misleading patients and charging irrelevant amount from them (Ameri, 2015). In 2005-06 spent 43% more on healthcare services the reason for this hike was growing number of elder people, the introduction of new technologies and more expensive malpractice by doctors. Australia GDP has a lesser share of the amount spent on the healthcare industry (Rosati, 2006). As per World Health Report, it has been evidenced that per capita spending on health is strongly measured by some health indicators and other factors like female/maternal education, income inequality and cultural characteristics which are directly correlated. In Australia, there is a concept of aboriginal health workers (Rosati, 2006). These workers work under the authority of a white professionals ad from a critical perspective it can be said that aboriginal/non-aboriginal health workers relationship is colored by colonial beliefs. In 1997 there were approximately 13000 aboriginal workers employed in various hospitals and health care centers in Australia and according to National Health and Medical Research Council, the lack of recognition of aboriginal health workers resulted in difficulties in accessing secure and ongoing funding for training. The Australian Nursing federation has addressed these low numbers of participation of aboriginal health workers in various health programs. Another aspect of culturist is non-English speaking Australians who are working in various health care centers that are represented in lower socio economic group; therefore a relation between poverty and social disadvantage and health is again highlighted. This is a clear example of cultural proximity. Cultural definitions of femininity and masculinity and the prescribed roles for males and females may affect illness experiences, health behaviors and treatment modality choices. In some cultures, for example, females are healed (or assisted in the case of childbirth) by females. Confrontation with a male doctor may upset and even offend some women. Conclusion On the basis of above discussion, it has been observed that there are many loop holes in the Australian healthcare systems. Initially, midwives were removed from the system in order to promote doctors by way of creating fear in the mind of patients that their pregnancy is risky, gradually doctors started charging high fees from women by convincing them of the danger in childbirth and incapability of midwives. It became a habit, doctors deliberately starting making every pregnancy a risky one, moreover the childrens bureau conducted a campaign wherein people were educated about the biomedical model of pregnancy and childbirth, and it was a deliberate effort to demoralize the role of midwives among people permanently (Stanley, 2014). secondly, there are various malpractices adopted by doctors and as per researches it has been seen that it is most common in hospitals, increased the frequency of avoidable surgeries nationwide, few injured patients were sued these findings were noted any Australian Professional Indemnity Reviews final report. Influence of medical knowledge is not restricted to the interpretation of medical illness; it is the process where the increasing aspect of life is defined as a medical problem (Stanley, 2014). Natural human phenomena like death, birth, and pain are no more realm of normalcy and have been incorporated into the medical discourse. Being overweight, underweight, ageing, or adolescence everything now comes under the medical microscope (Stanley, 2014). The pathway to beauty is through medical interventions. A doctor patient relation is described by the patients expectations that the doctor will listen to all his problems and provide him the best of solutions; he relies on the expert knowledge of the doctor (D, 2016). The power of this profession is legally prescribed and doctors are being expertise by taking numerous training and education. Despite all the role of doctor remains within the limit of relationships of authority and sub servience and patients remain dependent on medical professions. Exclusionary practices of the past, although challenged over time, are deeply embedded in contemporary practices. They continue to reflect the values and beliefs of the dominant culture. As a health practitioner, you need to be aware of your own specificity, how this affects your world view and how this might impact on your practice. Reflective practice is intrinsic to ensuring inclusion. Language and your use of language when working cross culturally is also important, an example of this is the abbreviation ATSI which stands for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander which can be viewed as disrespectful Most importantly your commitment to knowing who the person is within their cultural context and how they identify themselves is vital. Here comes the role of the functionalist theory of sociology which says that this approach adopts a perspective towards a society which is somewhat similar to biologists who adopts human body. In order to understand any part of the society such as family, government or religion it is mandatory to understand the functions of those social parts or structures. Whereas the interactions perspective generalizes about daily forms of social interactions in order to explain society as a whole. From an interactions point of view, the Australians are generally not passive, they are more open to the doctors to discuss their problems with health care practioners, in fact, they are also interested in knowing how the doctors have come into this profession, how they have achieved this position, how they have done their studies. This allows them to earn lot more respe ct from their patients and coworkers because doctors have the authority and patients follow their instructions rigorously but some patients fail to do so. For example, some patients dont follow doctors instructions and stop medications much before time. All the three sociological theories have different perspectives on the healthcare industry. The functionalist theory focuses on functions and stability of the society, conflict theory concentrates on the conflicts between the people in the society and lastly interactions theory focuses on the interaction between people in society including doctor-patient relationship. These theories not only elaborate the views of healthcare social institutions but also understand the outlook of other issues related to societies References Ameri, R. (2015). Improve your culture, improving your healthcare system.Health Care : Current Reviews,02(05). https://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2375-4273.c1.014 D, R. (2016). The Future Evolution of the U.S. Health Care Entitlement System.Health Care : Current Reviews,04(04). https://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2375-4273.1000e104 Duncan, P. (2010). Health, health care and the problem of intrinsic value.Journal Of Evaluation In Clinical Practice,16(2), 318-322. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2753.2010.01392.x Elshaug, A., Hiller, J., Tunis, S., Moss, J. (2007). 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