published letters

Published in The Age on Monday, June 6, 2011

If Minister Roxon really does claim that the new hospital watchdog will not encourage manipulation she must be living in another world. Hospitals struggle to perform because they are expected to the impossible with inadequate resources. How do they get surgery done when the specialists are working next door in the taxpayer funded private hospital? How do they fit patients into beds when the beds are taken by patients waiting for aged care places? How do they stop patients coming to Emergency requiring admission for problems which could and should have been treated in the community? How do they manage a budget which is missing the fair and historical 50/50 Federal/State funding split? They manipulate data to avoid financial punishment and a worsening of their position. The struggle to perform is related mainly to Federal Government policy and we are still awaiting the Federal reforms to address the issues raised above.

Tim Woodruff

President

Doctors Reform Society