Restoring accountability to public hospitals in the Parkes electorate
16-February-2010
Public hospitals throughout the Parkes electorate will be run by community boards under a groundbreaking proposal to overhaul the nation’s health system launched by the Coalition.
Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton said the next Coalition federal government will ensure that local people are able to apply local solutions to the problems plaguing our hospitals, while also making hospitals more accountable.
"Under the plan every major public hospital in NSW and Queensland will have its own management board which will include the chair of the relevant medical staff council, the director of nursing and community representatives, and would work with a chief executive to manage hospital budgets," he said.
"In NSW it will be recommended that the establishment of local hospital boards will be coupled with the abolition of area health bureaucracies, with the resultant savings used to ensure that hospitals pay their bills on time.
"Our hospitals need community boards, managed by CEOs which are accountable to the boards and then in turn accountable to local people.
"The Nationals have long supported such an idea because we live in the communities that are most affected by poor management out of Sydney and know how much expertise is held by local health professionals."
Mr Coulton said the move was necessary following years of neglect of NSW’s health and hospital system from the State and Federal Labor governments.
"Kevin Rudd is trusting the management of our hospitals to the same city-centric government and bureaucrats in Sydney that have failed the people of the Parks electorate so badly in the past," he said. "Mr Rudd promised that Labor would fix the hospital system by June 30 last year or takeover control from the states. He hasn't done either. "Sadly, Labor was always doomed to fail because it wants to continue suffocating the hard-working doctors, nurses and other health professionals that live and work locally, and stop them from managing properly and being genuinely accountable to the people who actually use the hospitals. "That's where the Coalition's solution will make a real difference."