Bill F.
On February 3, Victorian
health workers and professionals rallied in the Treasury Gardens to protest at cuts
to hospital jobs, wards, beds and other medical services throughout the state.
The
alleged reason for these savage cuts by the state government was a loss in
revenue of more than $100 million in federal health funding to the state of Victoria.
According
to the federal government, the reduction in funding reflected a change in the
way the Australian Bureau of Statistics predicts population growth based on
census data, and Victoria had plenty of money to provide improved services. With
the state and federal governments blaming each other, no wonder people are
frustrated and angry.
The
Victorian secretary of Ambulance Employees Australia, Steve McGhie, addressed
the rally, warning that “People will suffer and people will die, and they will
die because they won’t be able to get an ambulance.” He noted that ambulance
crews already spent up to 10,000 hours a month “queued up at hospitals with
patients on their trolleys”, waiting for public hospitals to find beds. “If the
cutbacks kick in, then obviously, hospitals will become gridlocked. There will
be more patients than ambulances. There will be cutbacks to beds. There will be
no beds to put them in, so they will have to wait longer.”
A
statement by the Australian Patients Association national director Michael
Riley said the bed closures and elective surgery cancellations in Melbourne
hospitals had led to an influx of calls from patients considering overseas
surgery. “You can hear the desperation in their voice. Many of the calls we’ve
had in the last two weeks are from people in considerable pain who have been
waiting for elective surgery for so long, they are willing to explore any option
to get their surgery done.” Mr Riley said patients are “fed up with being used
as pawns. It is time for both federal and state governments to immediately sit
down, resolve this issue and start putting patients first.”
Many
hospital administrations, local councils and state branches of the Australian
Medical Association have all deplored the crisis in public health care and the
‘blame game’ waged between the federal and state governments.
Then,
on February 20, the federal government Health Minister Tanya Plibersek
announced the restoration of $107 million in health funding to the Victorian
system. The money would be paid directly to hospitals, rather than through the
Victorian state government. Now the other states which had their funding cut
are jumping up and down and demanding restoration of their health dollars also.
While
this is a victory for the unions and community campaign, it clearly
demonstrates how Australia is held back by the division between state and the
federal governments.
What
a disgraceful, stupid system where the people’s taxes are grudgingly doled out
in a give and take circus between competing states! Meanwhile, beds are closed,
waiting lists get longer, doctors and nurses and hospital workers lose their
jobs, and patients suffer.
Putting
‘Humpty Dumty’ back together will not be a simple task either, as sacked
medical workers have to be re-hired or new ones found, rosters re-drawn, and
inventories re-stacked.
Just
like public education, public healthcare is being run down by this crazy
capitalist system, forcing desperate people into expensive private health
insurance and the private hospital system.
Australia
desperately needs a nationally-run public health system, and more and better
public hospitals.
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