Public hospitals never have enough funding. Those bureaucrats are expensive: "Australia's quality of medical training was being eroded because of the downgrading of public hospitals, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) said today. AMA president Dr Bill Glasson told a Sydney medical training conference Australia's great public hospitals - which had been icons of medical training - were being destroyed because of a funding shortage. Private hospitals were now carrying out 50 per cent of surgery across the country, Dr Glasson said. Public hospitals no longer had enough positions for junior doctors and due to the emphasis on service delivery did not spend as much time training students. "As our public hospitals become downgraded, we are able to provide less and less services to most public hospitals and therefore less teaching opportunities," Dr Glasson told reporters. Training would have to be delivered in public and private hospitals, Dr Glasson said.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation.

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