A friend who is a nurse asked me for my thoughts on this, so here it comes.

Currently the Health System in every State & Territory have pretty much the same problems. This instantly says that it is not s State based problem it is a Federal problem. The Federal Government has to take over as step 1.

Step 2. Private practices have to be setup in Public hospital Emergency Departments. This will allow a person with full Health Insurance to be able to get ER help without having to wait for hours in the waiting room. It will also be a nice revenue stream for the Public hospital.

Step 3. Full fees need to be setup for things like Sex Changes, IVF for “bad parents”, IVF for gay couples.
Step 4. Bring back the volunteers into the Hospitals. They can assist with many different things, there by relieving the paid staff and allowing them to work in more effective areas.

The Health System should not be privatised, we never want to end up like the USA.

On the subject of medical staff wages, a federal system will give greater control of wages, because there will not be the Union line of “We are the lowest paid nurses in Australia” because they will all be paid the same.

Importing Expertise. I think experience has shown us that more checks have to be done on applicants; they should also be tested when they arrive.
What can we do about training more staff here in Australia? We seriously need to investigate why we are not getting enough medical staff trained in Australia, the Clever Country.

Doctor’s hours have come into the media on occasions, I agree it is silly that they are working more than 12 hour shifts, I would not want someone with my life in their hands that is virtually over the legal limit of 0.05 due to fatigue. This is just wrong and we need to do whatever we have to, to fix this. More staff, more suitably qualified staff.

How do you achieve all this? Money!
The Medicare levy needs to be raised to 3%

In Summary:-
1. The State System is not working
2. Private ER practices within Public Hospitals
3. Full Fees for certain surgical procedures, and certain demographics
4. Volunteers
5. Import more Expertise , Train more Australian staff
6. Limit consecutive hours to 12
7. Increase the Medicare Levy to 3%

Share

Save