Hierarchy and Power in the Current Healthcare System in Australia

Running Head: HIERARCHY AND POWER 1
Hierarchy and Power
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HIERARCHY AND POWER 2
Hierarchy and power are intrinsic to the current health care system in Australia
Introduction
Health is essential for everyone in Australia. The current care systems in Australia
provides a word scope of services from population health to general practice, emergency health
services, and hospital care. Hierarchy and power are necessary when it comes to the current
healthcare systems. The citizens of Australia particularly the poor and the low-income earners
need to be given best health care services. There are sociological perspectives that go hand in
hand with the healthcare systems. People from different ethnicities and races who need to be
treated with care (Mossialos et al., 2016).Cultural beliefs and practices may differ strictly from
those rooted in the Anglo-Australian community. In some cities, ill health is believed to be
caused by evil spirits. There are people with different cultures in Australia.
Theoretical Perspectives
Health is defined as the extent of an individual's mental, physical and social well-being
while health care systems deal with the provision of health services. There are specific
sociological explanations about health care systems. They give a more understandable
approach concerning health. The first theoretical perspective is functionalism. The assumption
is that for the smooth functioning of the community, adequate medical care and good health is
essential. The sufferers have to execute the ‘sick role' for them to be seen as legitimately sick
and to release them from their normal responsibilities.
The medic-sufferer relationship is hierarchical where the medic gives instructions, and
the patient is required to follow them (Sociological Perspectives Reviewers, 2013). In
functionalists’ perspective, Sickness discourages the ability to perform their responsibilities in
the community, and if many individuals are unhealthy, the stability and functioning of the
community will be affected. It prevents people from carrying out their social responsibilities,
therefore, presenting an inadequate result to the community. Inadequate health care services
affect the society as people from poor background are likely to get sick and become unhealthy
due to various reasons

HIERARCHY AND POWER 3
The second theoretical approach is the conflict theory, and the assumption is that social
inequity identifies the quality of health and healthcare. Individuals belonging to low social
backgrounds are more likely to become sick and to get necessary health care. Sometimes the
medics have tried to control the practice of medicine and to explain the social predicaments as
medical predicaments. This approach critiques the medics’ efforts to control the medical
practice and to explain different social predicaments as medical ones.
The third theoretical perspective is symbolic interaction. It assumes that health and
sickness are social constructions: Mental and physical states have small or no goal reality, but
instead they are seen as healthy or sickly states only if they are explained as such by a
community. Medics manage the case to show their prowess and medical knowledge. Another
perspective is the biomedical perspective which is a traditional approach to medicine in the
western community. It assumes that sickness can be explained as some malfunction in the
individual human body. (Sociological Perspectives Reviewers, 2013). From this model, there
was the emergence of medical dominance as medics and physicians researched how sicknesses
could be handled. Furthermore, they argued that a person should take responsibility for their
health. Since there is the unavailability of resources, many medical experts asserted that they
did not have adequate time to underline the social contributors to every patients’ sickness. This
perspective added the status medics who claimed medical understanding as theirs.
History, culture, and structure of health care systems in Australia
In Australia historically, medics are associated with conservative politics. It is said that
these political forces and have supported the medical dominance development (Penington,
2016) gives detailed information about the medical monopoly in the country and claims that
the government has maintained the trust for a fee for service. Medical technology in the
current era has some doubts about the use of technology. For example, the additional care
provision is related to financing debates in regards to quality care provision.
Some theorists argue that the power and prestige of doctors are supported by their
assertions that they can cure certain sicknesses. Penington (2016) asserts that the added