published letters

Published in The Australian on Wednesday, January 8, 2014

WHILST agreeing with Martin Laverty that GP visit fees are no solution (“GP Visit fees no solution to health funding, 7/1), I was intrigued by his claim that the Productivity Commission found that “non-government hospitals deliver healthcare services at less cost and with better infection control than comparable government hospitals”. In its key points the Commission report stated that “at a national level, public and private hospitals have similar average costs”, and “limited available evidence suggests that private hospitals have lower infection rates than public hospitals, but this result could be misleading because private hospitals on average treat patients who have a lower risk of infection.” Perhaps there is some selective misrepresentation from a major stakeholder of private hospitals.

Tim Woodruff, Vice-President