Queensland privatisation plans for health system

by Rohan Gowland

The Queensland State Government has been in "denial" mode the past couple 
of weeks since secret documents prepared for the Government were leaked to 
the newspapers. The documents outline a plan to wind back the State's 
public hospital system and privatise it.

The plan purports to be a response to an "unsalvageable funding crisis".

This "unsalvageable" situation has been self-inflicted by government cuts 
to health funding; the only "crisis" is that the Government refuses to 
change its policy and give more funds to public hospitals.

The plan was drawn up by an agency called the Queensland Health Strategy 
Advisory Project and private consultants. It was tabled before Cabinet, on 
June 28, but, as the Government was at pains to point out, has not at this 
stage been officially approved.

The Government is, however, understood to have set up an "implementation 
committee", which is now looking at the document.

Unions have asked the Government for a copy of the documents, but have not 
received a reply.

The leaked documents have caused a furor in the media and among the public 
because they are hard and clear evidence of the Government's true agenda to 
dismantle the public health system.

Since the leak, the Government has publicly distanced itself from the plan, 
saying that its contents are "only recommendations" that the Government is 
still considering.

Even while trying to distance itself from the plan, the Government stuck 
its foot in its mouth when the Health Minister couldn't help adding that 
she supported the call, made in the documents, for the privatisation of 
government-owned aged care homes. The Government later had to distance 
itself from the comments made by its Health Minister.

It has also been pointed out that some of the "recommendations", that form 
part of the overall privatisation plan, have already been implemented by 
the Government — evidence that the Government's agenda is the same as what 
is outlined in the plan.

Some of the privatisation plan's blatant recommendations include:

* finding ways to scale back the construction of public hospitals;
* defer the commissioning of any further capital works
* changing the public's expectation of universal access to free quality 
health care;
* outsourcing catering, laundry and other non-medical areas; and
* increased pay packages for senior bureaucrats linked to performance 
criteria.

The Government has claimed that the fact that some of the plan's 
recommendations, which lay the groundwork for privatising the health 
system, have already been implemented by the Government is just a 
coincidence.

For instance, the plan recommends dividing the state's health services into 
three zones and appointing three zonal managers. This has already been 
done. The Health Minister said that this was always her policy. The nurses' 
union commented: "we believe the three zonal managers were put in there to 
implement some of the changes in the document", said Gay Hawksworth, 
Secretary of the Queensland Nurses' Union.

Ms Hawksworth told The Guardian, that nurses were "a bit cynical" 
about the Government's claims that the plan is not an indication of the 
Government's agenda for the health system.

Sources told The Guardian that independent research has given rise 
to unconfirmed reports that one of the two consultants involved in writing 
the documents was involved in the infamous privatisation of the Modbury 
hospital in South Australia and the other consultant has been involved in 
health privatisation in Western Australia.

The source said that one of the consultants is believed to be currently 
employed by BT Finance, the finance company that is financing co-locations 
(private hospitals being built on public hospital land).

Conflict of interest? Not at all; BT Finance, the consultants and the 
Government, they all have the same aims: the privatisation of the public 
health system. No conflict there.