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March 5, 2010
Dear Editor
Labor’s plan to take over hospitals will create more bureaucracy and continue the ‘blame game’ rather than get on with the job of fixing the fundamentals of our health system.
So far Labor has failed to outline any practical plan to cut waiting lists or improve health care, and has been very light on policy detail for political reasons.
And it’s the detail we need to be concerned about. Some very serious questions need to be asked, and some very obvious consequences need to be acknowledged.
Firstly, no State Government wants its revenue to dry up, and having a third of its GST stripped from it is the greatest excuse the Bligh Government will ever have to gouge more money from people’s pockets through higher state taxes.
The private health sector and private health insurance holders also have a right to ask what impact this will have on them. Whilst the government is attacking rebates on one hand, they plan to push more people into private hospitals on the other – hypocrisy at a high level.
No doubt we’ll also see the bloated health bureaucracy blow out even further. A new layer of public servants will be needed to administer the local networks, and after Anna Bligh’s pledge of 100,000 new jobs in Queensland, she’s hardly likely to sack a swathe of her own bureaucrats.
I also fear that under Labor’s plan, smaller regional hospitals could be sidelined, have their viability put at risk and therefore miss Labor’s efficiency targets – as if that’s the only value that should be attached to a hospital.
As for the networks themselves, if they follow the Goss Government Regional Health Authority format they’ll be disastrous. Boards must have a sense of community ownership and, like the health boards of earlier eras, legislated statutory authority. Anything short of that will just be window dressing.
The Coalition does believe in the Commonwealth having a greater role in primary care, but after Labor’s insulation stuffup, lingering doubts remain as to whether the Rudd Government is up to the job.
Trying to run a national health system from Canberra will be a hugely complex process. Do we really want to put our faith in a regime which can’t even effectively manage the installation of pink batts?
Yours sincerely
Paul Neville
Federal Member for Hinkler
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