Essential Reading
An Australian Medical Association analysis of Australia's public hospital systemPublic Hospital Report Card 2007
Click here to read to full report.
Governments often seek to restrain the growth in costs by delaying access to new health technologies. This is a counterproductive strategy. It stymies the productivity gains that have allowed the public hospital system to deliver more for less, year after year after year.
More than half the Australian population depends on the public hospital system, yet hospitals have not been given sufficient resources (funds, workforce, or infrastructure) to meet their needs.
The lack of resources threatens the quality and the safety of the system. The degradation of the public hospital system is not acceptable and cannot be justified given the healthy state of Commonwealth and State/Territory budgets (boosted by resources boom revenues).
The 'blame game' does not fool the people. Both levels of government (Commonwealth and State/Territory) have fallen down on the job. Having sought - and failed - to foist the blame on each other, they now share the blame.
An opportunity exists for governments to set appropriate goals and achieve real progress through the development of the next Australian Health Care Agreements.
Australian voters also have an opportunity through the ballot box to demand improvements to their public hospital system.
The AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2007 aims to assist policymakers and the public with a relevant and useful contribution to the debate.
