Health is always a hot topic whether we are in an election cycle or not.
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However, when an election is called the heat on the system is turned up.
Thanks to an election cycle the Mersey Community Hospital was saved by then-prime minister John Howard and independent Andrew Wilkie secured an incredible $340 million deal for the Royal Hobart Hospital during negotiations with Julia Gillard.
Labor leader Rebecca White has been saying for the past nine months that the 2018 state election would feature health as a priority.
On day three of the election campaign Labor revealed the health policy that would be the pillar of its campaign. The highlights included increasing GPs, paramedics, graduate nurses and beds.
On Monday a Productivity Commission report into health highlighted reduced waiting times in the emergency department, that the number of beds per 1000 people were below the national average and that elective surgery waiting list times had improved.
The Liberals were quick to highlight the improvements in the report.
While the number of professionals in our hospitals and wait times are important, we should also be closely examining health outcomes.
Too often the focus is on the numbers – the number of beds, how long it takes to be seen in the emergency department or the number of ambulances outside of the department.
Preventative health should be a priority. The Labor policy addresses preventative health in stage five of a six-year plan. The detail is vague and no dollar figure has been attached.
The policy around preventative health doesn’t go close to what experts have been calling for throughout The Examiner’s series on preventative health.
Many people who seek treatment or elective surgery have health issues that could have been prevented.
The only foolproof way to improve the health system is by less patients presenting to our hospitals.
The way to do this is through preventative health investment – this is the only real solution to ongoing improvement.
We look forward to seeing the numbers and more detail around preventative health from Labor and what the Liberals policy will be beyond bed numbers.
