published letters

Published in The Age on Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Public hospitals are too full and unless that issue is addressed any reasonable performance measures for public hospital performance cannot be met. It would help if the Federal Government matched the State Government’s huge injection of funds into public hospitals to address the increased demand, sorted out the lack of Aged Care places for patients waiting in public hospitals, and addressed the issue loss of specialists from the public to the private hospitals which are funded through the taxes of the private health insurance rebate. It would also help if the State Government stopped spin doctoring the figures, and admitted that the figures are really worse than they appear. Waiting times for surgery ignore waiting times to be first seen by a surgeon which could add a year to real waiting times. ‘Virtual’ wards have existed to disguise prolonged waiting times in emergency departments. Unrealistic and misleading performance indicators only compound the problems.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society