All fine stuff but the practicalities get in the way.

The hard line view would be that public healthcare is run in a Stalinist way because it has to be rationed because that is what the public have shown they are willing to pay for.

All the ideas are great but where will you get the workers
from ? There are not enough nurses let alone nurse practitioners, or allied health etc etc. these days you can't even find clerks and cleaners!

Next e health is great, money is probably no object, but find the qualified IT people to do it and enough will to persuade cautious medicos about the need to let go of their paper files.

Most States have comprehensive plans which have been well thought out and cover most if not all of Bartlett's objectives. Their problems are implementing the plans - no workers to do the work, resistance to change from an aging and increasingly money hungry medical fraternity, and difficulty in retaining skilled and capable leaders.

And that's before the politicians get involved !

There isn't much buck passing from the Federal Government on this issue. I'm not a fan of this government but it has my respect as it has to work as both government at both federal and state levels as the states refuse to do their job.

NSW has seen the health system crumble under Carr/Iemma. In Queensland, we had a working system before Beattie came in. From the time he was elected, political cancer is rotting the entire health system where emergency rooms are closed, ambulance services withdrawn, dodgy doctors employed as the good doctors fled Beattie's destructive leadership.

Myself, I am dealing with a leg operation gone wrong. This mistake almost killed me three weeks later yet I can't get them to just go inside the knee to see what needs corrected. No, instead they decided to blame me for it. Almost 12 months later, I'm having the same problems and throwing down Warfarin thanks to their mistake.

If Rudd become Prime Minister, the Labor Premiers won't have Howard to blame for their incompetence any more.