Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott has sought to make an election issue out of problems at a Sydney hospital, blaming Labor after a woman miscarried in a toilet while waiting to be seen by doctors. Earlier, Prime Minister John Howard blamed hospital administrators and human error for the incident at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. But when asked about the incident Abbott said: "If you don't like what's happening in public hospitals now, don't vote Labor, because state Labor has created this problem and I think federal Labor would just make the problem worse".
Abbott's comments contrasted with those of Howard, who said human error could occur no matter which level of government ran public hospitals. The NSW government is holding an inquiry into Tuesday night's treatment of Jana Horska at the Royal North Shore Hospital. The 14-weeks pregnant woman miscarried in a toilet of the hospital's emergency room after waiting in acute pain for two hours to be seen.
Howard rejected suggestions the case meant greater federal intervention was needed in state-run hospitals. "It's obviously got flaws and it makes mistakes and this would appear to be a very serious mistake, but I think we should be careful to understand that compared with the health systems of other countries, our system is good." Earlier today, Dr David Mountain, emergency medicine spokesman for the Australian Medical Association, said problems in emergency departments were common around the country due to overcrowding.--AAP
from the independent weekly.
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Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:42 pm