There are 118 private hospitals in Queensland with a total bed capacity of 6100 - that’s 1 in 3 of all hospital beds in Queensland. Every year private hospitals receive billions of dollars in public subsidies, while last year alone the two biggest private hospital corporations in Queensland (Ramsay Health Care & Healthscope) made $7 billion in revenue and $1.3 billion in profit.
Recently the third-largest private hospital provider attempted to hold the Government and public to ransom, threatening to lay off thousands of doctors and nurses, and shut down hospitals in the middle of one of the worst healthcare crises in our country's history. This is exactly why crucial services like healthcare should not be provided by private corporations - ultimately they always choose profit over people.
The decision by the Federal Government to spend $1.3 billion to guarantee the viability of private hospitals in exchange for temporarily bringing them under the control of the State governments demonstrates that it’s possible to integrate the private hospitals into our public system.
But we shouldn’t have to line the pockets of private corporations to provide healthcare to our sick.
The Greens will:
- Following the end of the emergency Federal Government viability guarantee agreement, permanently transition all private hospitals into public hands to rapidly expand the capacity of the public health system
- Guarantee the job of every nurse, doctor, surgeon and other workers at the private hospitals brought into public ownership