No efficiency in the Australian health system

A third of treatments listed on the Medicare Benefits Schedule is potentially wasteful or outdated. Neil Batt says we need to provide fairness in our health system and empower the consumer.

The hidden secret of Australian health

How can we improve patient outcomes and address some of the challenges Australia’s health system is facing? Neil Batt has some thought-provoking ideas.

A new age for Australia’s workforce

Australian Centre for Health Research Executive Director, the Hon. Neil Batt, discusses the history of Australia’s pension scheme and questions whether a standard retirement age is still relevant in the 21st century.

When a death wish is desirable

Adverse Communication

After the Labor Party and the electorate had combined together to conclude my political career I took a job as Executive Director of the Health Benefits Council. This was an organisation which had been established by the health insurance funds operating or having their head offices in Victoria and the intention was to have a stronger voice in the creation of health policy as it concerned the health insurance industry. It was also intended to liaise with and influence the private hospitals, the department of Human Services and the various professional bodies.

Mr Batt calling…

Pomp and ceremony may be on the decline but are manners headed south with them?

When I was Deputy Premier of Tasmania and ALP National President I thought I was important, indeed so important that I could not phone anyone directly or answer the phone myself. I had a secretary who initiated all my calls saying as she did so "  Mr Batt (or the Deputy Premier wishes) wishes to speak to xxx "

The ritual went that the person called would then answer the phone, my secretary would then say ‘Mr Batt on the phone" and I would begin the conversation. It was not that I was particularly pompous, it was simply that this was the way things were done, and so I adapted to the standard practice.

e-Health the key to a healthier system

We should be trying to buy and then modify complete e-Health bundled systems which have already proved successful overseas, rather than constantly trying to reinvent the wheel.

It’s who they are not what they are that makes great Australians really great

It's the people that matter, not the role.