I definitely would not want to work or be a patient in any of the hospitals if this consultant has his way.

The reduction is expenditure in public hospitals is what has led us to this point. So to reduce expenditure even further is going to exacerbate the problem much further.

It is fine all this talk about preventative health care, however this is a extremely long term strategy to be effective.

For example how do we get people with diabetes to manage their disease more effectively to prevent diabetes induced medical complications from occuring and sometimes despite the best managment complications do occur.

When the pandemic does occur our current public hospital system will not cope and many people will die simply because of the lack of facilities.

If the Granville train disaster occurred today, hospitals would crack under the pressure. Thankfully it occurred when the health care system was not under the duress that it is today.

A situation occurring around the country today is that smaller hospitals are loosing services that they once provided, for example maternity, so these patients are then forced to travel to the next hospital that provides these services. The flow on effect is that this increases the strain on these hospitals.

It has been well researched that when the workload increases, so do adverse events, such as infection rates.

"even though that will mean current patients have to live with extended periods of pain and suffering waiting for elective surgery or treatment."

This measure in effect will force more patients into the private sector and already people do die whilst waiting for hospital treatment.

A frequently overlooked factor contributing to the crisis is the degree of malnutrition among hospital patients, resulting in increased susceptibility to infection and increased length of stay.
Bureaucrats consider food as a service, not an integral part of people's path to recovery.
Food safety standards have resulted in many foods being served in packages which are difficult to identify and open - not to mention their contribution to waste.
Dietitians know the best way to feed people, but, like other health workers, they are overworked, and their expertise is often overlooked.
Any rethink of the health service must include ensuring that patients have access to nourishing, edible food in hospital, and frail older people and people with disabilities receive appropriate nutritional care in the community.

The essence of the problem is this – we have not agreed that health is the number one priority. Once we have so agreed, then escalating costs is no longer a problem. The cheque is in the mail.

Should health be number one? Think of the reasons you are glad to be alive in the 21st century and not in the 19th. Women’s lib? That’s good. Access to beautifully illustrated books? Great movies? Music on tap? That’s all good. Not good is the loss of pristine nature, the days where any man and wife could move into a small house on a bit of land and marrying the girl next door and staying with her for life. There are ups and downs.

We had better make up our minds if we place seeing all our children survive and not being partially crippled and in chronic pain at 50 above all other benefits of the 21st century