All you hear about currently is the Australian “health debate” a debate the pollies have decided to have as a political exercise, are discussions about who gets to spend the money i.e. exercise the power,  it has little to do with the health outcomes of Australians, that is just the excuse. 

Cynical perhaps, but if it were otherwise, you would be hearing real discussions  about the manner in which the billions were spent, not how just much, and by whom. We do need more to be spent, but more importantly in a society where health costs are increasing rapidly, and will continue to do so, we need debate, and importantly action, on the effectiveness  of the spending, and the means by which that effectiveness, measured by patient outcomes, can be improved.

Applying proven process improvement, Lean, and Six Sigma commercial disciplines to public spending should be a priority, but perhaps that would impinge on vested interests a bit much, so we leave it alone.

The parody via the “Lean” hyperlink above has a scary resonance, and  we leave discussion about the effectiveness of spending  alone, to the great cost of to our community over the medium & long term.