DOCTORS REFORM SOCIETY

DRS

Media Release

16 October 2007

 

$34 BILLION TAX CUTS AND WORSE SERVICES.

 

 The announcement of $34 billion in tax cuts by the Howard Government appears to miss the whole point that our patients and the people of Australia have been making for years, said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. They’re telling us that they want better services.

The idea that the public want a fist full of dollars has had its day, said Dr Woodruff. A fist full of dollars is useless in an overcrowded understaffed emergency department. It’s useless when there is no GP with the time to see you when you’re sick. It’s useless when there is no Aged Care place to suit your needs. And as private health insurance premiums continue to rise, it struggles to match those rises if you can afford the insurance in the first place.

If there’s that much money for tax relief why, after 11 years, are our patients spending nights in storage rooms in emergency departments, struggling to find and afford a GP especially after hours, with the time to give proper attention, struggling for 12 months in debilitating pain from an arthritic hip waiting for an operation.

This is a recipe for private affluence and public squalor. We hope they can do better very soon.