The Hawke/Keating Labor government dismantled the hospital system by sacking 7,000 nurses Australia wide and now in 2008 the hospital system is in tatters. I wonder how many people would have voted Labor if they knew 7,000 nurses were to be sacked & the government was to support the privatisation of Hospitals”. The financially challenged of Australia now have to wait ten months to see a doctor at a public hospital and after the appointment another two months to be admitted if they are not bumped off the waiting list. Hospital administrative staffs must be at wits end in trying to keep up with the continual government cut-backs. The doctors & nurses are being tested to the limits of human endurance. I believe the Australian government has abused its power and is failing Australians when we need medical treatment. Four times more [2000] people are dying whilst on waiting lists at public hospitals than on our roads [500] each year. One Prime Minister gave a billion dollars to Indonesia but our government refuses to support the public hospital system. If the government can process 250,000 motorists on a long weekend with random breathalyser testing and have them in court immediately they can put people through the hospital system.

What else is new at Dubbo Base hospital. They had no money to pay creditors, so patients missed out on meat in their diets. No money for x rays. And the building is in a deplorable state. Yet they are top heavy with management who contribute nothing to front line services. Its about time the health depart got there priorities straight. And put patient care as the priority it should be.

It's always about the lack of resources. It’s about the lack of available budget. It’s always the government’s fault. Isn’t it time the healthcare sector and professionals’ looks a little closer to home? The major cause of their problems exists right under their own noses. It’s them! There’s an article in the Journal “Quality & Safety in Health Care” (Nov 2007) that reported that one in ten patients suffers a preventable accident, error and/or mishap whilst hospitalised. I appreciate that the report is based on the NHS – but with no comparable Australian study (I wonder why? Emmm, how many Dr. Patels are there currently operating in public hospitals?), regardless these results remain illuminating. My wife, a registered nurse, has spent the last fortnight as an inpatient in a Western Australian tertiary hospital. She has identified at least four of these events (accident, error and/or mishap) in that time. So far, three mistakes involving drugs were prevented only because my wife refused to accept the prescribed drugs (IV). There is no doubt that had she accepted these drugs she would have an anaphylactic reaction. Another error involved an elderly post surgical patient falling out of bed. All these errors were easily preventable. Since my wife’s admission she has been under three different consultants and was moved six times in 7 days. Her scheduled surgery was cancelled yesterday, only god knows why. And she has an infection that she didn't have when she arrived. She will be an inpatient for an addition three days due to this delay. The problem with the healthcare system is institutionalised laziness which is partly caused by an initially poor recruitment and selection techniques and then followed by distinct lack of induction. Then there is the problem of trade unions (associations) that care more about their long term survival and career prospects than providing a workable health care system. There is a distinct lack of time management and too much demarcation. All of these problems are compounded by poor communication between healthcare professionals and between departments. Let’s not forget health care professionals’ resistance for any productivity or validation increase from the introduction of IT. They continually refuse to partake in IT projects because it could shed light on their incompetent and downright dangerous practice. The introduction of IT is always a compromised bastardised solution. Hospitals need an organisational culture shift – they don’t need more money or resources. They need more education, training and manners (which are free). They also need more accountability and transparency. Health stats should be produced on the performance of all healthcare professionals and institutions. Staff remuneration should be based primarily on outcomes (based individually, by teams and by institutions). Seniority isn’t a valid reason for promotion. Many Health Care professionals believe that poor clinicians are promoted to management exclusively on the basis of preventing more direct patient related errors, accidents or mishaps. The solution to our hospitals problems is right under the noses of the bureaucrats that “run” them. It’s them. How is more money going to resolve the problems of the public healthcare sector? It’s not! To the 10 million Australians that rely on public healthcare – I pity you!