Rudd's one-size-fits-all solution to everything: whether it be schools or hospitals - centralise it under the brilliant administration of the Rudd Govt! The hospital debacle is a rushed out, partial 'fix' designed to take the short term heat off the pink bats disaster. He's narrowed to focus to a new funding public hospitals only. Pathetic. We were led to believe that he was aiming to overhaul the whole HEALTH system - GPs, in-home care, private hospitals, private health insurance, rebates, pathology and radiology, aged care. dental, indigenous health, meth clinics, preventative health. If your going to take a national approach, you've got to come up with a wholistic, integrated policy.
Anyway, The chances of anything coming of this are remote. Will it clear the senate, the states and/or a referendum without bipartisan support? Of course not. Rudd must know this.
I was recently admitted to my public hospital emergency Dept on a Sunday night. Despite the outstanding work of the staff there it was chaotic. They were treating all sorts of ailments that could have been treated by a paramedic or GP, but the only afterhours GP charged a massive fee so everyone ends up at the hospital. Also, the local junkies are in the habit of dropping their OD mates at emergency and then running off. These people are massively disruptive to to Drs and nurses - falling out of bed, wandering around, demanding attention, swearing, spewing, off their faces. I hope Kevvie's new funding arrangement for 2013 will fix all this.
