Patricia Dasic
It seems to me Lara Giddings is about to embark on an expensive junket while patients languish for years waiting for treatment. She raises the type of behaviour epitomised by Yes, Minister to new and dizzying heights. The only trouble is nobody is laughing.
Dear Editor

I would be happy to be corrected if I have misunderstood but I could swear I heard a fleeting news report Health Minister Lara Giddings is about to embark on a trip to the USA and Britain to look at how our health system might be improved.

This comes at a time when we have the Australian Medical Association pointing its finger at Tasmania as having one of the worst performing health systems in the country in spite of the fact that over recent years the government has retained a number of health consultants to advise on how to improve the Tasmanian health system.

Given the parlous state our health system is now in, it seems justifiable to question the quality of all the expensive advice the Minister has received and why she needs further education about this.

Furthermore, if the Minister is going overseas to study other health systems why on earth would she go to the USA, a place where she only recently spent a month supposedly studying their health system.

The American health system is surely one of the worst in the developed world. Fifty million people there have no access to health care because they have no private health insurance. Another twenty five million have inadequate access to health care because they are unable to afford the level of health insurance needed for comprehensive cover. This is what our Minister is going to study. Furthermore, she has yet to inform us what she learned last time she visited America or whether any improvements were implemented here as a result of that trip.

It seems to me Lara Giddings is about to embark on an expensive junket while patients languish for years waiting for treatment. She raises the type of behaviour epitomised by Yes, Minister to new and dizzying heights. The only trouble is nobody is laughing.

Patricia Dasic