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December 5, 2005
The Forster Report into Queensland Health system confirms that an adequate and safe level of services is not being provided in Queensland hospitals and health systems. The inference is that it is probably not being provided in other states, as exemplified in NSW.
The future of an ageing Australia is one of massive tax increases to pay for inadequate services. Hence Premier Beatties' view that the Australian health system will fall apart by 2015 and his call for a national health summit.
An editorial in todays Australian Financial Review takes up the issue. It says that:
Australia's health costs are spinning out of control....Last year Australia's total health bill topped $78.6 billion. Yet public hospitals are grinding to a standstill ....Something's wrong when when a system consumes 9.7 per cent of gross domestic product fails to deliver a reasonable standard of service. The Federal government knows it.....But more resources and skilled people won't solve all the problems...Most of the problems in health provision are about management of financial and human resources. Queues will shorten and services will improve if they are funded, paid for, and managed with clear lines of accountibility.
Very true. But hospitals are not the health system. There is the whole domain of primary health care outside the hospitals; a domain that functions to prevent illness and to reduce the flow of sick people into our hospitals.
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