EVEN THOSE WHO RUN IT ARE GIVING UP ON AUSTRALIA'S PUBLIC MEDICINE SYSTEM

Their only solution is to pass the buck to the Feds

The nation's health system is "stuffed" and "a disaster waiting to happen", South Australian Health Minister Lea Stevens has warned. "To put it quite bluntly, the current health system is stuffed," she said. She says the State Government cannot afford to keep pouring funds into the health budget and that a lack of hospital beds, shortages of doctors and nurses, and funding cuts have put the system under severe stress. "It is not just in Australia. It is also the situation in countries comparable to us," she said.....

"Nothing is being done to reform the basic parameters of the way health services are being delivered," she said."If we don't do something like this (reform the system), we are going to be run over by health."

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PUBLIC MEDICINE GIVES UP (IN AUSTRALIA'S MOST POPULOUS STATE)

Private hospitals would be paid to operate on public patients who have waited more than 12 months for elective surgery, under a State Government plan. More than 4,500 patients in NSW who are waiting for low-complexity procedures including cataract and ear, nose and throat surgery would benefit from the plan, designed to cut hospital waiting lists. The Premier, Bob Carr, said about 2,000 of the patients would be operated on in public hospitals, but 2,591 patients would go to private hospitals. "This is a further part of our extensive plans to increase access to surgical procedures for all patients, from emergency cases to less urgent procedures," Mr Carr told reporters. "Our priority is to ensure that people who have been waiting more than 12 months have their elective procedures completed as soon as possible. "That is why we are thinking outside the square to engage the private hospital sector where they indicate they have additional capacity to perform a range of procedures." All private hospital and day centre operators in NSW have been asked to express their ability to perform the 2,591 low-complexity procedures.

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HOW PUBLIC MEDICINE IS ADMINISTERED IN A THIRD AUSTRALIAN STATE

A culture of bullying in Queensland Health starts at the top, one of the state's leading heart surgeons says. Professor Con Aroney, former director of the coronary care unit at Prince Charles Hospital, has slammed departmental bosses for using threats and intimidation to hide the truth about our health care crisis. He also attacked Premier Peter Beattie and Health Minister Gordon Nuttall for failing to stop the bullying by senior Health Department officials. "Their method has been to shoot the messenger, to cover things up and to deny there's been a problem," said Prof Aroney, who told the Government a crisis in cardiac care was killing patients. "People are unwilling to speak out because of this bullying ethos."

Warnings of a crisis by Prof Aroney - who quit the public system last month because of bullying - were vindicated this week by a damning report into two deaths at Prince Charles Hospital. The report revealed thousands of Queenslanders could die waiting for heart operations because of a lack of funding, hospital infighting and a bed shortage. Liberal Party deputy leader Bruce Flegg said Mr Nuttall's failure to stop bullying in his own department was proof he condoned it. "He's the one man in a position to do something and he tolerates it," Dr Flegg said. "Bullying is across the board in Queensland Health and it's their way of sitting on an issue. It shuts people up and anyone who complains is threatened and intimidated."

Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said systematic bullying had been rife within the department for years. "Queensland Health uses its heavy-handed code of conduct to effectively gag staff from speaking out," he said. "Under Labor, bullying became entrenched with former minister Wendy Edmond turning abuse and criticism of staff who complained into an art form. "Minister Nuttall has continued the system of bullying and undermining staff who speak out."

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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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