Labor pledges hospital waiting list blitz

The ALP announced a plan on Monday to cut hospital waiting lists and ensure more Australians received the essential surgery they required much faster.

As part of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund, he announced if elected his government would dedicate $250 million to blitz elective surgery waiting lists in public hospitals.

This announcement is in addition to the ALP’s $500 million commitment to slash public hospital waiting lists for cancer patients as part of its Medicare Cancer Plan.

“Procedures such as knee and hip replacements or cataract surgeries aren’t elective – they are essential,” Mr Shorten said in a statement.

“Labor’s $250 million investment could pay for more than 62,000 cataract procedures or 9800 knee replacements or 9400 hip replacements.
 
“While patients are stuck waiting for essential surgery, Scott Morrison is cutting $2.8 billion from public hospitals so he can pay for handouts to multinationals and the top end of town.”

Are you on a waiting list for cataract surgery, or a hip or knee replacement? Does this announcement make you more likely to vote for the ALP?

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16 comments

Well, Abbott cut the age pension as soon as he got in -- he took some of the CPI off us and it has NOT been replaced!

Even the letter sent out to us Pensioners was a load of lies of which I am contacting -- Paul Fletcher about and call him out on it.

Cataract surgery was ok till this Government cut back on it some  months ago

Lies is all you get from this decrepid government. Been listening to the electioneering. This lot have no integrity and are for the most part souless human beings who play the game.  

Australia can do better than this lot which have run up the national debt like no government ever before it and now lie about surplses and jobs to fool the mentally challenged.  God help the country if those of us without sufficient intelligence put them back in on the back of right wing media grooming and promotions.

 

You accuse all around you of lying, MICK as well as making personal abusive comments. Let me suggest that you are lying although I won't descend to the gutter with personal abuse.

Your claim "this lot which have run up the national debt like no government ever before it" is a lie, a straightforward lie. Let me set the record straight for you once again on the National Debt. In 2007 Labor were handed a credit balance of $24.2B and by 2013 had run up the National Debt to $174.5B which mean that they had spent $198.7B more than they had received. The latest figures for the National Debt is $341.0B which means that the government only spent $142.3B more than they had received.

This means that although the government has presided over an increasing debt, it has added less to the National Debt than Labor has. In addition, when Labor left office they had an unemployment figure of 6.2% with a budget estimate that this figure would increase to 6.7% whilst the current unemployment figure is 4.9%, not suggested, not projected but actual. 

Lying about what?

I'll stand my ground on the debt and you can use any shell game you like to deceive readers including right wing media stories.

Your persisten BS about what Labor did when Rudd got into office ALWAYS ignores the GFC.  You know...the one where the entire western world saw people thrown out of their jobs and all countries had to run up debt.  Yeah, you clearly forgot about that!

Here's the link you seek to ignore:

http://www.australiandebtclock.com.au/clocks

The CURRENT National debt is $694 billion and you can try to dispel the figure with accounting tricks but it is what it is.  I'll stand by it.  You can do what the government is currently doing:  lie and deceive.  I don't care but you won't get away with it again.

Your unemployment figures also ignore the GFC abd you seem to behave as if this even did not happen and/or was inconsequential.  It wasn't.  Add to that the other thing you refuse to print:  that the unemployment figures the government is using counts 1 hour a week as a job and that Morrison turning many fulltime jobs into 2 part time jobs is 'job creation'.  Its a scam and you are telling the lie.  You have no credibility!

Here's a less confusing and more accurate website.

https://theconversation.com/factcheck-has-australias-net-debt-doubled-under-the-current-government-100819

I read the link from beginning to end and it seemed like there was no comparison between GFC years/GFC long gone years.  The discussion also seemed to ignore GROSS DEBT preferring to talk about net debt which, like the current climate credits the government intends to use to make us look like responsible citizens, is misleading.

Whilst neither of us are experts Gross debt is what the government owes and I would suggest any attempt to turn this into a 'net debt' argument brings in the ability to deceive.  Not as this the current government is not a master of deceit.  You only have to watch the nightly 'news' for want of a better name to see them at work.

Perhpas find a link from an economics professor at Sydney University who has no political affiliations.  I would take that more seriously.  Until then I'll have to stay with the Debt Clock which I contend tells the story and we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

Thought I'd kill a bit of time OM so did a bit of reading.  Maybe we both need to do an economics degree.

Check out the figures in this link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_government_debt

The table to the right and the discussion about 'net debt' is interesting.  I understood the gist of this was that net debt is how to cook the books because governments can use all sorts of quicksand to make black look like white.  It appears GROSS GOVERNMENT DEBT is where we need to be and on that point Labor inherited a debt of around $58 billion in 2007 and on leaving office in 2013 left a debt of about $272 billion........effectively creating a debt of $214 billion.........incurred during the post GFC years.

The coalition kept increasing the Debt Celiing and then abolished it altogether.  Its now chalked up debt of around $558 billion which is getting close to triple what Labor left.

The figures on the website are from Commonwealth figures so you can't argue the toss there.  Your choice of using net debt is really suss and unless you can get a university economics professor to corroborate your figures I suggest to you they are as bogus as a coalition Press Release during an election campaign.

Please find fault with the figures.  You are welcome to do so but don't make it up.

Something needs to happen, I've been waiting for a new knee for over 2 years.  But because I had a heart failure episode last year and could not attend the pre-procedure consult they took me off the waiting list.  Now I am going through the whole process again, and have had to start from the beginning.  My knee is so bad now I can hardly walk.  They haven't taken that into account so I'm still category 3.  It is not right to do this when not being able to have the surgery

was not my choice, but dictated by my heart.  Perhaps I will have a fall and end up using a lot more resources.......crazy!!

i hear ya patti

i could tell you many stories about our overworked medical system, but the bottom line is the huge increase in population via immigration, plus the reduction of medical services by the govt, instead of INCREASING the medical infrastructure to cope with the increase in population.

it took me 16 months to get a colonoscopy on the public system.

my former neighbour faced an 18 month waiting list to get his hip replaced, so he and his wife borrowed, along with family members, the money it cost to get it done privately at the time. he then found he had a 4 and a half month waiting time to do it privately. he screamed in pain when he walked it was that bad. one night he sneaked out and put a rope over my fence and hung it from my tree and hanged himself to escape the pain.

those 2 stories are the tip of the iceberg.

shit i remember back in the days when sanity was used in the countrys planning and the waiting lists were measured in days and weeks rather than years.

i doubt you have a case patti, but i suggest you contact one of these "no win-no pay" legal scumbags and see if you can sue the dept of health for "unnecessary pain and suffering due to unreasonable delay". worth a shot and if by a fluke it works and is prosecuted in court, it may force the govt to reduce the immigration strain on our health system, and spend more on building new hospitals and training mroe doctors, insted of squandering it on solicitors for illegal immigrants. if you do try that path, dont let some legal scumbag talk you into doing it on hourly rate where you pay even if you lose.

also check the fine print, because sometimes these legal scumbags like gerard malouf and partners for example, have been known to lose a case then sue the client for their fees which are horrendous.

Gough Whitlam and Labor gave us Medicare (then known as Medibank). Malcolm Frazer and the Coalition LNP took it away. Bob Hawke reintroduced it as Medicare. The LNP Coalition has been trying to weaken it ever since. Who can we trust with health policy? The answer is obvious!

Never an LNP government.  This side of politics is owned by the rich and always gives our money to those who already have so much:  large tax cuts, company tax cuts (attempted), huge sums of money to their PRIVATE schools and handouts on steroids.

 

got bad news for ya ny19!

your naive post of 'Gough Whitlam and Labor gave us Medicare (then known as Medibank). Malcolm Frazer and the Coalition LNP took it away. Bob Hawke reintroduced it as Medicare. The LNP Coalition has been trying to weaken it ever since. Who can we trust with health policy? The answer is obvious!"

both major parties want to scrap medicare as they say it is "too innefficent and too costly", and want to phase it out and go to the american system of "private insurance", which obviously doesnt work.

basically it is a "pay up or die" system, where even if you have private health insurance, in order to make a profit, the insurance companies refuse to cover many medical procedures.

in australia insurance  companies only pay a set fee for each procedure, and many doctors, and virtually ALL specialists, charge 20 to 80 percent over the fee that the insurance companies set. "hey if you want to save your money, keep it for your funeral", is the attitude of most specialists.

the reason it is so "inefficient and too costly", is entirely down to immigration. sure a few immigrants are medical people, but for each doctor they import, they import many thousands of migrants who ARENT doctors, which obviously adds up to a shortage of doctors. add to that the fact that they wont build any new hospitals, and have reduced the capacity of the existing ones rather than increasing the capacity given the extra demand for medical services. 

the current trend by labor and liberal is to "free up cash" by selling off infrastructure, and saving that cash by investing it in non productive things such as social workers for one on one extra care of people under the mental health act, and numberous other hair brained schemes, such as cultural grants which gobble up money but dont have any intrinsic value, while at the same time, refusing to invest in new infrastructure.

then they blame it on the medicare system and bullshit to us and say  "private health insurance is the answer as it is more efficient", and its alarming how many naieve and gullible people believe their bullshit.

so if  you think labor will try to save medicare you probably still believe that the unions are on the side of the worker, instead of facing the fact that the unions sold the workers out to the major parties back in the hawke era and have continued to do so, and are now in bed with the liberal party as well as the labor party. the phasing out of medicare is yet another example of the "loud silence" that comes from the unions every time the govt screws us.

 

If Mr Shorten were serious about these things, he would make sure there were no out of pocket expenses for these items on private health insurance. Also fo these things now some are likely to be included in the top cover only thus ensuring even more expense for those with insurance - either upgrade or go public and wait. Either way, the patient pays!

Mr Shorten is well down the path of yet another mediscare strategy. This constant claim of the incumbant government stripping money from medicare just doesn't stack up. In 2013 Labor's last budget, there was about $13b in hospital spending. This increased to $16.9b in 2015-2016 and is on track for $20.7b next year up 6.5% each year. So where is the money stripped? And just one more thing, it was Labor who first implemented the medicare freeze which the Libs are now (slowly it true) unfreezing. Pity Mr Shorten is incapable of telling the truth.

What's your employer offering KSS?  More money to the rich sold as 'Trickle Down Economics' which works nowhere on the planet.  Nothing for average citizens other than wages which are held down and money ripped out of the many services average people utilise.

Shame on your BS post.  Run for politics!

Pity you are so full of it MICK. Check your facts before casting your ridiculous and well worn epithets.

You are a piece of work, MICK. The post by KSS is simple, straightforward and full of facts that discredit Shorten's lie. Your typical union bully boy response is to abuse the person rather than address the facts which you can't refute. Shame on you.

Shorten will promise anything to get the top job..dont fall for it!

The right wing trolls are on steroids.  I'll stand on my observations.  Now that we are in election mode you lot have gone balistic in your lies.

KSS is telling the lie.  The Medicare freeze may have been introduced by Labor as a 2 year temporary measure but it is this government which has kep it going for many years.

Mediscare?  Not even comparable to the blatant dishonest deceitful campaign from the government at present.  I saw the Greg Hunt who lied to the nation about electricity prices during the Abbott campaign ("you have high electricity prices because of the Carbon Tax"?) engaged in his next deciet about Labor's intention to fund the costs of cancer research. Same deceit.  You'd think that Labor was not covering any cancer treatment in the man's spiel.  

Shorten will promise anything?  Think Tony Abbott and what he did after he was elected.  If Shorten did that he'd not be worthy of being elected.  He won't as the man has some integrity, something you lot and your party have shown you have none of.

This is going to be a bitter campaign.  I'll fight the lying promoters of the current government and its morally corrupt MPs in whatever way I can.  Call me out for whever you like but my posts are mostly completely factual and I do not support either side of politics.  However I do detest one side of politics because honesty, fairness and integrity are important to me.  Not to you swill though.  You lot can be bought for a fistful of dollars...which is precisely what has occurred.

as i have constantly stated, claiming shorten is a good guy because morrison is a scumbag or vise versa is a totally unrealistic and bullshit attitude and has no logic whatsover

while you 2 are abusing each other, both those scumbags are planning their strategy to screw both of you

In answer to the questions; no, no, no and no!

How is this going to come about, isn’t it the State government that is in charge of hospitals, are Labor proposing to give all states an increase in funding, the federal government decides on the Medicare rebate, so is it the increase to Medicare rebate that is being proposed by Labor that is some how going to shorten the waiting times, or have I completely got the wrong end of the stick as to how it all works. This is a genuine question, and seeking a genuine answer.

You have a point but then state governments do get funding from the federal government.  Maybe need to ask Shorten about how this is going to work.

I'd like to see an independent review of the management overheads in delivering health services.  The health department in Canberra doesn't lay hands on a patient for example and all State and Territory governments have sizeable central and sometimes regional offices filled with bureaucrats who similarly never lay a hand on a patient.

Of course, some administration is necessary, but where one is in the business of (say) making widgets, the success of that is strongly dependent upon ensuring that anyone who is on the payroll and isn't actually directly contributing to making those widgets had better have a damned good reason for continuing to draw his/her pay.

To make one rather obvious observation, I have never met a senior nurse who wasn't exasperated by the loss of her time on 'management reporting' that resulted in bugger all actual benefits for the patients.  Most of the management reporting is directed at justifying the management layers in those big high rises in the cbd.  Garbage in and garbage out for managers who should be shown a photo or two of patients so they know what the agency is supposed to be there for.

Image result for political cartoons of bill shorten

 

Note the date..June 24, 2016. It worked, Murdoch won another election!

wow you actually read that letter? i didnt bother, i just put it out with the rest of the junk mail.

wow you actually read that letter? i didnt bother, i just put it out with the rest of the junk mail.

mick?

if you have anything nice to say about either the labor party or the liberal party you have destroyed any credibility you may have.

neither party gives a shit about the general population, and has every intention of screwing the general public, as they honestly belive it is their destiny to "shear the sheeple". they have no respect or concern for the genral public, but only contempt. they have even more contempt for people like you who support them.

its not a matter of which party is "best" but which party will be more gentle when they screw you.

either major party if elected will pluck you like a chicken and laugh about the fact that you supported them.

if you must vote, vote for the independents. that at least gets a message to the major parties that you are a wake up to what a corrupt bunch of low life amateur actors they are. they will never public acknowledge it but it will make them consider screwing you more gently. i personally will support any independent or minor party which is opposed to further immigration.

one minor party you shouldnt support is scumbag palmer's party, as he is only acting out of self interest, and not the general welfare of australia.

another party not to support are the greens. they pretend to be concerned about the enviro, but are just as keen as the liberals and labour to open the doors to anybody who wants to help come and overcrowd australia, which will automatically cause more pollution and take away more enviro for the wildlife.

democrats are the biggest hypocrytes and con men of the lot. they got the balance of power by vowing to "keep the bastards honest". given that democracy means majority rule, its kind of strange that they allowed the govt to bring in gst, and sell off telstra and other infrastructure, despite that clearly the majority of people were totally against it.

yet the sheeple continue to support these lowlifes. it makes me sick to realise what a bunch of sheep the voters are.

mick?

if you have anything nice to say about either the labor party or the liberal party you have destroyed any credibility you may have.

neither party gives a shit about the general population, and has every intention of screwing the general public, as they honestly belive it is their destiny to "shear the sheeple". they have no respect or concern for the genral public, but only contempt. they have even more contempt for people like you who support them.

its not a matter of which party is "best" but which party will be more gentle when they screw you.

either major party if elected will pluck you like a chicken and laugh about the fact that you supported them.

if you must vote, vote for the independents. that at least gets a message to the major parties that you are a wake up to what a corrupt bunch of low life amateur actors they are. they will never public acknowledge it but it will make them consider screwing you more gently. i personally will support any independent or minor party which is opposed to further immigration.

one minor party you shouldnt support is scumbag palmer's party, as he is only acting out of self interest, and not the general welfare of australia.

another party not to support are the greens. they pretend to be concerned about the enviro, but are just as keen as the liberals and labour to open the doors to anybody who wants to help come and overcrowd australia, which will automatically cause more pollution and take away more enviro for the wildlife.

democrats are the biggest hypocrytes and con men of the lot. they got the balance of power by vowing to "keep the bastards honest". given that democracy means majority rule, its kind of strange that they allowed the govt to bring in gst, and sell off telstra and other infrastructure, despite that clearly the majority of people were totally against it.

yet the sheeple continue to support these lowlifes. it makes me sick to realise what a bunch of sheep the voters are.

Once again a forum where the gullible and naive still argue about this party and that party what "they" have done or will do if and when they win an election...

 

God's sake Australia wake up ...

The rich and powerful in cohorts with whatever political party is in power at the time piss on you and the media owned by those same rich and powerful tell you "It's raining"

 

somebody with a dose of realism in their thinking stated

Once again a forum where the gullible and naive still argue about this party and that party what "they" have done or will do if and when they win an election...

 

God's sake Australia wake up ...

The rich and powerful in cohorts with whatever political party is in power at the time piss on you and the media owned by those same rich and powerful tell you "It's raining"

 

well said. its a carbon copy of what i have been saying all along .......

 

 

I see MICK continues to think that anyone, who has an IQ above their age, believes anything in his posts. That's funny. Absolutely lost all credibility a long time ago. Nothing but a getup troll.

Waiting times will vary depending on a hospital's location. In an area subject to massive immigration the waiting times will be under more pressure and influenced more by triage. I imagine places like Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong having increased waiting times?  

adrian? you and mick are very alike except you seem to blindly support the libs while mick blindly supports labor.

mick naievely believes that because morrisons crowd are scumbags that obviously shortens crowd are the saints

you seem to believe that because shorten is a prick, that morrison is a nice guy.

shorten and morrison  both think you are both idiots for supporting either one of them.

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