DOCTORS REFORM SOCIETY

DRS

Media Release

Tuesday, 2 October 2007

 

PUBLIC HOSPITALS: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ABDICATES NATIONAL HEALTH PLANNING

 

“The announcement by the Health Minister that the Federal Government would leave running of public hospitals to local boards competing for scarce resources with adjacent hospitals will be a disaster,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“This is an abdication of national health planning,” said Dr Woodruff, “just at a time when such planning is essential to co-ordinate the complex technological medicine which hospitals now practice. It’s a return to a failed model of the past rather than a vision for the future”

“Every hospital board would like an intensive care unit and emergency department in their hospital,” said Dr Woodruff. “But quality care happens when there is enough work to give the unit the experience. With scarce resources and national workforce shortages, this is a recipe for second rate care.”

“In addition, this will be yet another layer of bureaucracy in running the ‘dog’s breakfast’ health system over which Minister Abbott presides. Inefficiencies in our health system are currently estimated to cost anything from $2 to $6 billion per year and this will only add to that figure.”

“It’s time for the Federal Government to acknowledge its responsibilities for the declining services in our public hospitals and put forward resources and a viable long term plan to address the issues.”