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Private surgery won’t fix Victoria’s public hospital problems
1 November 2007
AMA Victoria says Kevin Rudd’s $100m elective surgery blitz plan, announced yesterday, should focus on utilising under-resourced facilities in Victoria’s public hospitals rather than allowing states to purchase additional capacity from private hospitals.
Dr Doug Travis, AMA Victoria President, says Victoria’s public hospitals are not utilising their full capacity, with many of the states’ operating theatres currently closed for many weeks each year.
“Sending surgery patients to over-stretched private hospitals for operations does not make sense when we are under-utilising our public hospital operating rooms,” Dr Travis said.
“Mr Rudd’s $100m would be better spent on getting all of Victoria’s public hospital operating theatres up and running again.”
Dr Travis says the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s $13m loss highlights Victorian hospitals’ capacity to provide more health care than current funding arrangements allow for.
“The bottom line is the Commonwealth contribution to Victoria’s public hospitals has fallen to 41 per cent and is now $716m short,” he said.
“What we’ve seen from both parties so far does not provide the necessary investment in our public hospitals and Victorians’ health care.
“We need a 50/50 Commonwealth funding contribution to make substantial improvements to Victoria’s public hospital system.”
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