Health Care

View as PDF

The Principles

1. Life and health are gifts for which the individual person has responsibility to take reasonable care, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.

2. In the interests of the common good, a state government has responsibility to promote the security and health of all its citizens. Its health system should provide access to quality health care for all without discrimination.

3. A health system should be person-centred rather than facility-centred or profit making.

The Issues

1. Inadequate funding for the support of quality health care facilities.

2. Insufficient human resources to maintain quality health care standards.

3. Lack of sufficient appropriate specialised care, accommodation and respite services for people living with physical disability or mental illness.

4. Need for additional indigenous community health services, staffed and managed by community members.

5. Carers and families of HIV/AIDS patients lack adequate support, including accommodation and transport.

The Alternatives

1. Improve salaries and working conditions to attract staff to NSW hospitals and other health care facilities.

2. Provide of care in purpose-built or adapted accommodation for those people with mental illness who are now living in sub-standard conditions, including young people who have no secure accommodation.

3. Increase funding for respite services for both patients and carers.

4. Provide more short-term accommodation close to major treatment centres at city hospitals for family/carers of patients from rural New South Wales.

5. Support establishment of additional indigenous community health centres in both urban and rural areas.

6. Provide adequate funding in support of carers and families of HIV/AIDS patients, including accommodation and transport where needed.