Productivity Commission Exposes SA Health
Jan 31, 2012
Martin Hamilton-Smith MP
Shadow Minister for Health & Ageing
Shadow Minister for Mental Health
Shadow Minister for Substance Abuse
Productivity Commission Exposes SA Health
Despite record spending on health, State Labor is failing to get results in hospital emergency departments, waiting times for emergency surgery, elective surgery waiting lists, Indigenous health and suicide prevention according to a new Report on Government Services by the Productivity Commission.
“Health Minister John Hill thinks that the only measure of success in health is to spend more and more of the tax payers money without ensuring that you get results” Shadow Minister for Health Martin Hamilton-Smith MP said.
“Minister Hill’s response to the Productivity Commission is to seek credit for spending more dollars on health, employing more health practitioners and bureaucrats but he does not want to report on his failure to ensure that the tax payers are getting treated on time and value for money for the $5 billion per year that he is spending: a figure which equates to around 30% of overall Government spending.
“The Productivity Commission report confirms his failure compared to other States on emergency department waiting times across the State with 22% of emergency cases not seen on time and 34% of urgent cases left waiting. And 30% of semi-urgent casualties are not seen on time.
“COAG’s Expert Panel on Surgery and Emergency Access has already confirmed that after presenting at emergency departments some patients lay in agony for an average of 2 days (41.5 hours average) before undergoing the surgery they need to survive and recover.
“The Productivity Commission further report states that at the 90th percentile elective surgery patients waited 208 days for their operation, one of the worst results in the country.
“Health Minister John Hill has been forced to acknowledge his under-performance on Indigenous health in SA with 10.2 deaths per thousand compared to 6.1 deaths per thousand in the non-Indigenous community.
“Across South Australia mortality due to suicide is 12.1 per 100,000 amongst the highest in the country.
“Minister Hill does not understand a fundamental point: it is not how much you are spending it is about the results you get for that spending and his results are poor” said Mr Hamilton-Smith.