media releases

“Amongst the messages the Treasurer Mr Costello delivered last night was the unspoken one to the hundreds of thousands of Australians waiting for admission to a public hospital bed,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.” The message was ‘Just keep waiting, I’ve a fistful of dollars but I’ve better things to spend it on than you”.

“Why, in the face of successive huge budget surpluses, could the Treasurer not find some money for our needy and deserving hospitals?” asked Dr Woodruff. “The best he could do was an expansion of an inadequate, inefficient, and ineffective ‘safety net’ for dental health with an initiative which will not reach most of the 650,000 people on public dental waiting lists.”

“Sadly, perhaps one reason this budget contains so little for our patients who wait, desperate for the proper care that the rich can afford, is the lack of a strong, coherent, and opposing policy on health care from the cross benches”, said Dr Woodruff. “Clearly the message the Government is receiving is, ‘why spend budget money on the issue?”

“Last night the federal treasurer Mr Costello yet again demonstrated that he is far more interested in producing budget surpluses than in a properly run and adequately funded health system. Building surpluses on the back of under funded essential services and a continuing decline in the proportion of federal public hospital funding is a callous and cynical disregard of our patients and health staff”.

“Today it was reported that yet another elderly patient needing heart surgery was turned away from Westmead Hospital. The situation is much the same around all of Australia. We are all at risk. How many more patients will need to die before the needs of the Public Health System are properly addressed” said Dr Woodruff.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

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