Our failing hospitals !

A recent emergency department disaster - and the plethora of unpaid bills that have caused local product suppliers to cease supply to Wollongong hospital has raised the question of what form of administration would resolve these crises.
There have been suggestions of a return to the past when a local hospital board was in charge. This had the advantage of bringing the decision making process to a local level, but the disadvantage was that such boards were stuffed with stooges by whatever political persuasion was in office at that time.

The problem comes down to one simple basic. All our hospitals are grossly underfunded - and they will continue to suffer logistic and staff problems until that problem is rectified.

The cause of the problem is simple. There are two distinctly different sources of funds that sustain our hospitals. Money comes from the state government - who own and run the hospitals - and from the Federal government who provide tax money to support the health system.
As a result, we see a classical example of buck passing. Both levels of government blame the other for lack of adequate money to run the health system.

There will never be a solution to this problem until a single entity has the responsibility of both running and financing our hospital system, and for that to happen - one of two choices will have to be made.

One option would be for the Federal government to take full responsibility for the Australian hospital system, removing it from state control and therefore achieving uniformity rather than differing state standards of care.
This would be a divisive approach that would split public opinion, but it is an option that should be widely debated - and possibly decided by a referendum.

The other option would be to return personal income taxing power to the states. At present, taxation is solely administered by the Federal government, giving rise to state claims that each state is short funded. The Goods and Services tax ( GST ) was an attempt to reimburse the states by a new tax imposed on a national basis and distributed in it's entirety to the states - and this has done nothing to reduce their claim of still being short funded.

More than a century ago the states and the Federal government both levied an income tax. The re-imposition of a state income tax would allow the Federal tax to be lowered and applied to Federal functions - while the states would have to accept responsibility for hospitals and schools as purely state functions - and face their taxpayers when setting the level at which that tax would be applied.

Services like hospitals are a need that should not be provided by way of a joint responsibility. If they are under the control - and financing - of a single entity then there is no excuse for failure - and the taxation level to provide that service is open to public scrutiny - and either acceptance or rejection by the voting public !