If the current rate of growth in hospital admissions in Australia continues, private hospitals can expect to be treating 50% of all hospital patients by 2021. Imagine if the public sector alone had to undertake all this work, writes Michael Roff, CEO of the Australian Private Hospitals Association.
Public hospitals
Health reform: you wouldn’t wish it on a baby
If health reform was a baby, you’d have to say that it’s facing an exceedingly tough start to life.
How hospital emergency departments are forced to “sell” patients
Cost-shifting, blame-shifting and patient-shifting are an integral part of our health system, and the COAG health reforms are unlikely to signal their demise, writes Sydney emergency registrar Dr Clare Skinner.
Australia hasn’t run out of hospital beds — we’ve run out of nurses
There is no shortage of public hospital beds, says former AMA Chairman Dr Peter Arnold. There are beds aplenty — just in closed wards. And the wards are closed because there is a shortage of nurses.
Brumby runs wild against Rudd
Daily media wrap: Victorian Premier John Brumby has gone rogue, slamming Rudd’s public hospital health reform policy and suggesting his own. Is Brumby just trying to show Canberra up or are his objections valid?
Private health insurance: the leech sucking on our sick blood
Private health care is an evil publicly funded roach that feasts on people’s middle-of-the-night fears and if we had any guts we would crush it beneath our heels, says Shakira Hussein, as she reveals why she just bought it anyway.
Here’s how Rudd could resuscitate our public hospitals
In 2007, Kevin Rudd promised to fix Australia’s public hospitals if the states had not done so in a year. He would be foolish to blindly follow his National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission’s recommendations, writes David Penington.
Agnostics need faith in private hospital sector
You can’t be agnostic when the whole point of contracting out public services is to gain the cost and productivity benefits of the more efficient private sector, writes Jeremy Sammut.
Public hospital “guidelines” funded by drug maker
The push for widespread use of an anti-blood clot drug has been described as “scandalous,” writes Ray Moynihan.
The Abbott plan puts politics before health
It’s very kind of the media to allow Minister Tony Abbott to keep the election focus on the perennial problems of public hospitals. This not only gives him an easy shot at the states, but also helps distract public attention from areas where the health buck stops firmly at his government’s feet.
Rudd’s hospitals takeover – read the fine print!
The Kevin Rudd plan to reform the health system and , if necessary, take over the hospitals has many sound policy features. But let the buyer beware, writes Robert Wells.
