Shields, Linda (2015) Health care in a "new" Queensland. In: TJ Ryan Foundation 1st Anniversary Seminar. From: TJ Ryan Foundation 1st Anniversary Seminar, 19 February 2015, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

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Abstract

At the last T.J. Ryan Foundation celebration in February 2014, I presented a paper entitled "Healthcare in a Newman Queensland". With the recent election which has seen the overthrow of Campbell Newman's government, I call this current paper "Healthcare in a "new" Queensland". The previous Liberal-National Party (LNP) government planned ambitious changes for Queensland Health, which, as one of the largest of the government departments, was in need of an overhaul. Their aims were laudable, and included reducing bureaucracy; reducing waiting times for admission to hospital, specialist consultation and routine surgery; ensuring patients were seen by medical specialists and received required surgery within reasonable timeframes, and a more efficient Queensland Health. Methods for making these changes included decentralising the system by creating autonomous health regions with their own boards of directors who had the power to control everything locally. Membership of these boards was by direct ministerial appointment, and they were expected to use an efficient business model. Because Queensland Health, as one of the biggest employers in Queensland, was notoriously cumbersome, the new boards were expected to cut staff and implement targets, the achievement of which became the driving force behind facilitation of many of the proposed changes. All this was put in place in the three years of the LNP government. The changes wrought by the Newman government have had significant negative effects on the health system, and a full and formal evaluation is now required to assess if there were indeed any real efficiencies achieved.

Item ID:	37780
Item Type:	Conference Item (Non-Refereed Research Paper)
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Date Deposited:	01 Jul 2016 00:06
FoR Codes:	11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1110 Nursing > 111099 Nursing not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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