It’s time to stop applying bandaids and get on with real change
Despite their protests that it was a “hold-up” and that it “may tragically be the death warrant for some people”,1 last month our state premiers capitulated and signed the 2003–2008 Australian Health Care Agreements (AHCAs). Since then, the healthcare crisis has all but disappeared from the front pages of newspapers and television screens, but, for the community, the crisis remains a daily reality. The desire for healthcare reform, so evident at the recent Australian Health Care Summit,2 will continue, and the demand for the AHCA’s reform blueprint3 to be implemented will only increase in the face of the ongoing inertia of our health ministers. In short, there is now widespread expectation of less political rhetoric and more action.
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