10 December 2009

The Productivity Commission report today on the Performance of Public and Private Hospitals is yet another verdict on Kevin Rudd’s failure to ‘fix’ public hospitals.

 

Shadow Health Minister Peter Dutton said the report found that in several ways private hospitals were less costly and more efficient than public sector hospitals.

 

“What that says is that Kevin Rudd and Nicola Roxon have failed to ‘fix’ our public hospitals as they promised,” Mr Dutton said.

 

Findings that labour productivity was higher in the private hospitals, that patient stays were shorter and that costs were lower showed that the Rudd Labor Government faced a big task in living up to its promises.

 

“The trouble is they haven’t even started. Mr Rudd said he’d fix our public hospitals by mid this year. Yet on Monday at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Brisbane he could not even outline a plan – proving he did not have the long term plan he talked about at the last election.”

 

 Mr Dutton said the Prime Minister’s promises in health were a fraud.

 

“What an embarrassing outcome for Mr Rudd. He brings the Premiers together from all the States and walks away with an agreement to come up with a decision-making-process to reach an agreement next year – that’s Kevin Rudd chief bureaucrat in action for you.”

 

“I thought he was already paid as Prime Minister to make decisions – but yet again we see that Kevin Rudd can’t take a tough decision.”