PM admits 'complex' hospital fix late

The prime minister admits his grand plan to fix the nation's hospitals or take them
over is now nine months behind schedule, but he insists he still has time to "get it
right".

Kevin Rudd promised before the 2007 election to mend the ailing health system by
mid-2009 or move to take over the funding of Australia's public hospitals.
On Sunday he confessed it was easier to talk the talk than walk the walk.
"We're now about nine months late from implementing that commitment," Mr Rudd told
ABC TV.
"I accept that.
"We didn't anticipate how hard it was going to be to deliver things. We didn't
properly estimate the complexity."
The PM has said he'll put his health reform plan to the states and territories at
March's COAG meeting.
No date has been set yet, but it's widely tipped to take place after the South
Australian and Tasmanian polls on March 20.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, however, thinks the prime minister may reveal his
vision sooner than that.
"What I suspect he's going to do is come up with a bureaucratic fudge," Mr Abbott
told Network Ten on Sunday.
"I suspect some time in the next couple of weeks he will announce a national
hospitals commission. It will be another level of bureaucracy and it won't make any
difference on the ground."
The coalition plans to install local management boards in every major public
hospital in NSW and Queensland if it wins this year's federal election.
Mr Rudd agreed hospitals were best run by locals.
He insisted on Sunday his threat to take over hospitals only ever referred to
funding. The states and territories would still run them.
"It has always been my view that hospitals are best run locally," the PM said.
Many in the community thought Mr Rudd meant complete control when he talked of a
takeover.
Indeed, even before the 2007 election then PM John Howard accused Mr Rudd of
deliberately "misleading" the public.
"When you say 'take over', everybody thinks that means you're going to run them," Mr
Howard said in October.
Currently, funding responsibility is shared, with the commonwealth providing block
grants to the states every five years.
But the Rudd government's hospitals reform commission has recommended a shift to an
activity-based funding model.
For instance, a hip operation would attract a set dollar amount nation-wide. It's
argued this would encourage greater efficiency because hospitals would have to pay
the difference if the procedure cost them more.
This change in approach is likely to be the focus of Mr Rudd's announcement when
it's finally delivered.
Australia's doctors will be pleased if that's the case.
The Australian Medical Association says a single funder is vital.
"What we want is to make it clear where the funding is coming from so there's no
cost-shifting and blame-shifting," president Andrew Pesce said on Sunday.
While the details will be nutted out at COAG, "it wouldn't surprise me if something
was announced before that so people have a chance to look at it and there can be
some discussion", Dr Pesce told AAP.
Mr Rudd says if the states don't sign up cooperatively he'll still seek a mandate to
wrest full funding responsibility from the states.
"That's exactly what I said and I will not budge from that.
"I'm determined to get it right."