Writing in the Fairfax press today Amanda Vanstone wrote the following.
"When you look for big savings you need to look at the big expenditure
items. One of our biggest expenditures is on health, along with welfare
and education. If it was possible to get e-health up and running, we
would all be better off. It had its inception under Tony Abbott back
when he was health minister and sadly is still stuck somewhere in the
system. I think we should say enough is enough and just outsource the
job to the private sector. It will cost to set up but the savings, in
both better health care and dollars, will be enormous."
Read the full commentary here:
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/budget-2015-what-joe-hockey-should-be-announcing-tomorrow-night-20150510-ggxah7.html
Certainly this is a sentiment it is hard to disagree with. Failing to recognise that keeping on at something you have persistently failed at, on both sides of politics makes little to no sense! A totally new approach is needed - not more of the same and more waste!
David.
4 comments:
It's more to do with the incompetence of the public servants than the incompetent politicians. The bureaucrats should be held to more accountability. The likes of Jane Halton should never have been rewarded with new positions and should have been held accountable and frog-marched off the payroll a long time ago. Taxpayers are oblivious to how poorly their dollars are managed. Its horrifying when you speak with them face to face.
" I think we should say enough is enough and just outsource the job to the private sector." Oh my god! Who is she lobbying for??? After 30 years of privatisation of public services and utilities, are we really better off? I wonder how much money Accenture and Deloitte have made whilst paying little tax? How much waste they have made or taken advantage off, that is really the profit they seek? How many 'jobs' have they really created by this public expenditure, meanwhile the number of permanent full time stable positions have gone that might have otherwise existed? If you think the public service has failed, and now demonstrably the private sector (read Corporations) have failed, we need to think of at least a third way now.
"we need to think of at least a third way now"
Any suggestions?
David.
I think its really another discussion thread. But something along the lines of funding infrastructure projects like this with a more democratic economy, for example, run by some sort of cooperative structure. We should be paying local people (and not the 'imported' people like 457/485 expatriate 'migrants', lifestyle and hard currency seeking 'Permanent' Residents, and backpackers who won't go home - we got lots of unemployed/underemployed here already and its increasing) and local organisations (not Multinational Corporations, we have plenty of local companies in HISA) to build and run this. Anyone who wants to be a user member of the PCEHR (i.e. patients and consumers as well as healthcare providers) should have voting rights like they do in credit unions to participate in how it is run (instead of exclusively by a 'Board of Directors' or 'Government Officials'). After all its *our* health, and *our* data (and *our* money as taxpayers). Its NOT a particularly 'radical' idea either. Credit Unions and Community Banks run like this already, and tend to be very stable. People like you and other Doctors have been just as marginalised and victimised as anyone else, in the whole eHealth affair, as evidenced by the existence of your blog and its many varied contents.
(If you have time, the strategic concept of a democratic economy is better explained in this short essay:
http://www.garalperovitz.com/what-then-can-i-do/
PS: Side comment, I think GFC 2.0 is nearing for all sorts of reasons. )
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