The Sin of Spin‏

We read: “The New South Wales Health Minister Reba Meagher has justified her decision to talk up the performance of the state's hospitals in the face of being labelled a charlatan by the Opposition. Ms Meagher has been criticised for selectively releasing details of an annual report card to show public hospitals were performing above national benchmarks. She has been forced to concede that some hospitals, such as Gosford, Campbelltown and Canterbury, are not meeting the targets. Gosford Hospital performed below target in all but the most serious emergency cases, with only 40 per cent of triage two category patients being seen within 10 minutes, well underneath the 80 per cent benchmark. But Ms Meagher says the system overall has improved.”

Ahhhh the great sin of spin, they ALL do it so well but no one has truly mastered it like the current New South Wales State Government. I am sure if you live in any other state that you are experiencing similar issues of incompetence and bureaucratic bungling in the public health system. Granted any large publicly run infrastructure will always have it's speed humps and issues -- no system is perfect -- but I am talking about the N.S.W Department of Public Health and in particular the State Government that has allowed what was once a very efficient and first world standard health system slip into something close to third world conditions.

There are a plethora of reported incidents ranging from administration mishaps causing undue waiting of health services up to criminal neglect resulting in death. Not one or two cases but scores and scores every year. For this Minister of Health Reba Meagher to hold up a report that gives support to her outlandish claims that this system and the hospitals in particular have never been better !... well it's just an insult to the intelligence and more proof that politicians really do think that we are ALL stupid. I guess some of us are because we keep voting these spivs in and they keep stuffing it up.

If you can afford it , please get yourself and your family privately covered, whilst the N.S.W Department of Health just keep sweeping it all under the carpet for the next minister or government to discover. Don't blame the nurses or the hospital staff , they do a hell of a job with very little pay and support from above.