LNP to establish local hospital boards

The LNP’s stance
A LNP government will give local people a greater say in how their hospitals are run by establishing local hospital boards. 

Reasons for this stance
The current regional health structure adopted by the Bligh Labor Government has failed Queenslanders and places too much decision making in the hands of distant bureaucrats.

The LNP believes the best decisions for local hospitals are made when boards compromising local doctors, nurses and other talented community and business leaders make those decisions. 

People on the ground, working in their local communities, are best placed to make decisions about local hospital services and patient care. Because local board members will have a direct stake in ensuring their local hospital performs, they will be less dismissive of failings than distant bureaucrats.

Members of these boards will be clearly accountable to local people.

Through better decision making and the elimination of bureaucratic waste, local hospital boards will deliver improvements in frontline services for Queenslanders.

Labor’s record
Labor’s centralised bureaucratic health system has failed Queenslanders. When the current structure of health districts was put in place, we were told that it would ensure proper planning and avoid waste.

Waste and mismanagement are the hallmarks of this Labor government. Labor has failed to provide the infrastructure our growing and ageing population needs whilst at the same time delivering a more than doubling in the number of managerial and clerical staff employed in Queensland Health.

 Labor’s Health Legacy – Fast Facts

•  When Labor came to power there were 3.1 beds per 1000 residents in Queensland and by June 2009 this had fallen to 2.4 beds per 1000 residents, well below the national average.
• In September 2009, almost one in every five Queenslanders waiting for elective surgery were waiting longer than clinically recommended compared to one in twelve people when Labor came to power.
• There has been a 66 per cent increase in Labor’s ‘secret’ waiting list in the last five years. There are now 180,582 patients stuck on the ‘waiting list to get on to the waiting list for elective surgery’ – waiting years for an appointment with a specialist in a public hospital outpatient department.
• Emergency Departments are overcrowded with 31 per cent of Queenslanders in December 2009 waiting an agonising 8 hours or more before admission to the bed they need compared to 15 per cent only five years earlier.