Scratches are beginning to appear on Kevin Rudd’s electoral record. A major plank of his Kevin 07 campaign was an Emissions Trading Scheme to save the planet. It seems the planet will now have to wait and the much vaunted ‘Fuelwatch’ and ‘Grocerywatch’ have been consigned to the dustbin of political history.
Kevin’s threat to take over the hospitals if the States didn’t lift their game is also about to be transferred to the never-never. This is despite the fact that hospitals cannot pay their bills; waiting lists are at record levels; and specialist doctors who stand up to the increasing army of health bureaucrats are removed from the system.
Failures in our NSW State Hospital system are now a part of our daily news diet.
The threat to centralise the health system in Canberra is scary. The last thing we need is another layer of faceless bureaucrats who are further removed from local front-line hospitals. This reflects Labor thinking – a huge centralised politburo that is supposed to have all the answers. I think not.
We need to go the other way and de-centralise our health systems. NSW Opposition Leader, Barry O’Farrell, has pledged to reintroduce local Hospital Board as part of his health policy for 2011. This is good policy because it ensures local people will have a say in the operation of their local hospital.
Local leadership instils a sense of community ownership in ‘their’ hospital. Local fundraising and community volunteering is more easily facilitated with such a policy.
There is no argument over the fact that States have an important role to play in the allocation of resources for infrastructure, the management and co-ordination of regions, specialist medical areas, recruitment and research. The trashing of the NSW State economy by the worst performing Labor Government in history has had a debilitating effect on its ability to meet ever increasing health demands.
The Rees Labor Government is tired, complacent and devoid of any new ideas. It represents the 3rd X1 and has served one term too many. They badly need a spell on the Opposition benches to renew themselves.
Now that the reality of government has hit Kevin Rudd he needs to re-evaluate his threat to take over the State Hospital Systems and encourage his State counterparts in NSW to shake out the entrenched health bureaucracy and direct them to ensure health services are delivered by professionally qualified medical staff with support from local hospital boards.
Barry O’Farrell would not be offended if Labor borrowed his policy in this important area.
