The Zap has been one of our best-read features at Croakey this year, providing in-depth coverage and analysis of health and aged care policy developments and related news.
Our readers undoubtedly have learnt a lot, thanks to the diligence and care of columnist Charles Maskell-Knight.
But what has he learnt along the way?
Charles Maskell-Knight writes:
This year Croakey has published 49 editions of The Zap, my weekly column of health and aged care news.
The first column was published on 16 January, described as “a weekly summary of health-related reports, announcements and media releases from Commonwealth government agencies, Health and Aged Care Ministers and other politicians, national health sector organisations, and some international bodies”.
It has evolved a little over the year to include a list of open consultations, as well as some occasional editorialising and personal commentary.
Rather than prepare an end of year highlights reel, I want to reflect on the experience of preparing a weekly column for the past year.
Like matrimony, it is not an enterprise to be taken in hand lightly.
The average edition of The Zap is over 3,000 words in length, includes between 50 and 100 web links to press releases, reports, and other material, and takes several days a week to compile.
I find it incredibly interesting. After 35 years working on health policy, I knew a lot about the subject – but every week as I compile the column, I learn something new.
Frustrations
It is sometimes incredibly frustrating.
For a start, approaching government departments seeking information or clarification is usually a waste of time, because the default position is a bland brush-off.
For example: Question: “The report was due for completion two months ago. When will it be completed?”
Answer: “The report has not yet been completed.”
Really?
I hasten to add that the media team at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) are an honourable exception – they are always willing to provide prompt and helpful responses to queries.
Another source of frustration is the Department of Health and Aged Care’s approach to management of information flows on its website.
The news page is reserved for statements the Department wishes to disseminate. It does not provide a link to the many new reports, policies, program rules, and data publications posted on the wider website each week – and given there are literally hundreds of pages devoted to individual topics, projects, programs, reviews, or data sources, monitoring these would be a full-time job.
I thus rely on interest groups monitoring the pages of most interest to them, and then commenting on LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, or through a media statement.
If the Department really wanted to let people know what it was up to, it could have a “what’s new” page with links to new material.
But I suspect Croakey colleague Dr Lesley Russell is right when she says, “I think that this Federal Government doesn’t want us to know what is going on”.
The Department’s use of its consultation page is another issue.
For the last six weeks it has included a link to 2024 Influenza Vaccination Reporting for Aged Care Service Staff and Residents, due on 7 February 2025.
Reporting on vaccination rates is a mandatory requirement for aged care providers. In no way at all is this a “consultation”, and it should not be cluttering up the consultation page.
The page also contains a link to an application form for accreditation as a hearing service program provider, which has been there since 2021 and will be there until 2030.
Glacial speed
However, the greatest source of frustration for me as an observer rather than a reporter is the glacial speed of health policy development.
Somewhere in the vaults of the Department there must be a six-step “how to develop policy” guide, which goes something like this:
Step 1: Belatedly acknowledge the existence of a policy problem which has been publicly evident for years.
Step 2: Appoint a review committee, and engage a consultancy firm to assist the committee.
Step 3: Do nothing for a year as the review committee releases background papers, scoping papers, discussion papers, and options papers, and consults with every relevant group it can find.
Step 4: Receive the report from the review committee, and acknowledge the extensive consultation it had carried out.
Step 5: Promise to consider the review’s recommendation carefully, and undertake to consult the sector widely on the recommendations.
Step 6: Do nothing and wait for the election.
You think I’m kidding?
Here is Minister Mark Butler releasing the reports of the inquiries into GP incentives, after hours care, and workforce distribution measures:
“The three reviews involved extensive consultation with primary care and health workforce stakeholders. The Government will consult with the sector as it considers the recommendations and findings of the three reviews.”
Wishes for the New Year
The first few months of next year will be dominated by the federal election campaign.
But once a government is elected and settles in by the middle of the year, let’s hope for some progress on the many policy problems besetting our health system.
In so many cases the policy work has been done. Intelligent and experienced people have studied the evidence, consulted groups with insights into the issues, and presented well thought through recommendations about what to do to address the problem.
The Government just has to adopt the recommendations and get on with implementation – not further consultation.
Best wishes to all Croakey readers who are able to have a break at some point in the next few weeks, and thanks to all those readers who are service providers and will be working over the holidays to look after the rest of us.
One of the highlights of the holiday season is the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal, which this year considers the health risks faced by Disney heroines. Well worth a read!
And finally, a big thank you to my editors at Croakey, particularly editor-in-chief Dr Melissa Sweet, for their suggestions, corrections, and improvements to the column during the year.
Charles Maskell-Knight PSM was a senior public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Health for over 25 years before retiring in 2021. He worked as a senior adviser to the Aged Care Royal Commission in 2019-20. He is a member of Croakey Health Media; we thank and acknowledge him for providing this column as a probono service to our readers. Follow on X/Twitter at @CharlesAndrewMK, and on Bluesky at: @charlesmk.bsky.social.
