FOUR DAYS TO GO - PUT PEOPLE BEFORE BUILDINGS

It would appear that the Rann Government is a victim of its own spin, that the solutions to the health , mental health lie entirely in bricks and concrete and steel .

It is strange that the Ministry thinks that way after all the Rann and friends hype about SA being the clever state, the place to invest because we have the skills the training and education. (But then the Government demonstrably doesn’t believe their own hype else they wouldn’t continually appoint heads of department and senior administrators from interstate and overseas who make their mark then go home leaving us to live with the consequences.).

The Premier and the Minister seem proud of the fact that they have imported 1000 doctors and an equivalent number of nurses and other health practitioners, Should they be just as proud that we have failed to produce at home a sufficient number of skilled people to replace our ageing health workforce? It isn’t just the high end of the professional spectrum, we don’t produce enough basic carers , enrolled nurses or registered nurses either.

On the election hustings many people have stories that they would have liked to have tried entering these fields of work , however at the time , there was not sufficient room in the courses for them so they went another way.

Nothing in the provision of comprehensive health services is going to be simple. All the political promises of reducing waiting lists, extending acute services to regional areas are presumptions. To fulfill these promises they will need skilled staff right across the spectrum surgeons, anaesthetists, physicians, registered nurses – you know the list. At the RAH we didn’t see any, health workers standing around idle, waiting at the Emergency Dept to see if they could pick up an extra patient on the way in. So we will have to buy in temporary skills again.
We have all heard the mantra from Treasurer Kevin Foley that Health takes an inordinate amount of the State budget and we haven’t got enough money. Yet the Rann Government is quite happy to commit South Australia to a “Hire Purchase” agreement for the Railyards Hospital of an estimated $1bn plus a year for 35years or more. What a difference it would make if that $1bn was actually put into ensuring the supply of skilled people, then employing them here in SA, either directly or assisting with private employment in the health sector. What a difference if money was provided for our local medical research community so that opportunities exist here and we stem the brain drain. What a change it would be if the Rann Government invested in people. People before Buildings

Perhaps the reality is that the Rann Government genuinely doesn’t understand what to do , so it plods on with the concrete and steel solutions because that’s all they understand, in which case they should willingly stand aside! But it won’t, too full of its own election spin.

On March 20th VOTE 1 SAVE THE RAH.