Got to admit it's getting better.

Good evening all,

Had a great day today.

Janyne and I decided we'd "have a day off" and just relax. Ended up hopping onto the golf buggy and looking at all the new developments around the resort. Our economy must be in great shape because the housing/unit development business is booming at Hope Island.

Had a couple of wines at the Clubhouse and sauntered back to Suzanne's house to visit Patch (our part time dog). Janyne's now cooking dinner (roast beef I believe) and Jacqui and Andrew have just arrived to stay for the night.

Now, let's get back to the Gold Coast Hospital.

As mentioned yesterday, after two episodes of chest pain on Sunday 1st October, I contacted Dr Peter Hopkins at the Lung Transplant Unit at Prince Charles Hospital, who suggested we go to the Gold Coast Hospital. He had pre-warned the medical team there and, on arrival, I was immediately taken through to the emergency ward and received a number of tests all under the direction of a Dr "Steve" who was simply first class in his handling of the situation.

Unfortunately, his shift ended at 7.00pm.

Prior to his departure, he told me that he had discussed the test results with Peter Hopkins and both agreed that I should stay overnight to undergo further tests in the morning. "Steve" assured me that the ward registrar would visit me before 9.30 pm and "admit" me to a ward overnight. I enquired about some food but being a Coeliac (gluten/wheat intolerance), this proved to be difficult. By 10.45 pm, still awaiting a visit from the registrar and admittance to a ward, I was advised some food in the form of jelly and custard had been found in the children's ward and they were getting it for me.

In that period from about 4.30 pm to around 11.00 pm I saw some amazing sights. From a beautifully groomed older lady in pajamas and dressing gown who was genuinely suffering from chest pains, to injured drunks celebrating the Broncos Grand Final win, to drug affected foul mouthed young women blaming everyone else in the world for their troubles except themselves, to overly anxious parents concerned about their infant's cough.

How the staff managed this chaos is beyond me. Security guards had to remove one irate visitor to an inebriated patient, who was swearing about it taking too long to fill out some paperwork.

Anyway, my jelly and custard arrived around 1.00am, no registrar arrived to admit me to a ward, the chaos continued and by 2.00pm I'd had enough and decided to go home.

Now I am not complaining about my treatment. It was excellent. And I'm not complaining about the staff. They were brilliant given the difficult conditions under which they had to work.

I am blaming the patients.

For too many years now, governments have been keen to offer "FREE" medical treatment to everyone. It's a vote winner and I have always been of the view that politicians exist for the sole purpose of being re-elected (yes I know there are some genuine exceptions, but not too many).

First it was Medicare, but medical practitioners' costs went up at a rate faster than the increase in the Medicare payment and a "gap" started to be charged by GPs. However, if one went along to the local hospital or to some of the local after hours medical centres, only the Medicare payment would be charged.

The result is that our emergency hospitals are grossly overloaded with people who simply want free health care often at the expense of those in genuine need.

WHY?

Every new major road in Australia, every new tunnel, every bridge now appears to attract a toll. We have GST, numerous levies (it's not a tax!) and now due to widespread drought we're told we'll be paying more for water. This is in addition to personal taxes, company taxes, numerous State and Federal indirect taxes etc.

In other words, we pay for, and expect to pay for, every imaginable service; except Health.

WHY?

Of course the answer is, "Well, we pay 1.5% Medicare levy and that should be enough".

IT'S NOT. Nor would any amount of Medicare levy be enough. It is just another indirect tax. It doesn't hurt. And not all of us pay it do we?

The problem is that many of those who seek "free" medical treatment don't pay the levy because they're not working or have an income below the Medicare levy threshold. They rely on the rest of us to pay for their Health services.

The solution to the overcrowding of our health system and the chaos it brings, is to charge everyone, say, $20.00, for a visit to a doctor, a visit to hospital, an ambulance call or whatever. That's $20.00 in addition to the Medicare payment.

Whether employed, un-employed, retired, pensioner, health card recipient or whatever, we can find money for pizzas and hamburgers, for poker machines, for TAB bets, for alcohol, for illicit drugs, for cigarettes etc. Don't tell me we couldn't find just a lousy $20.00 for medical care if we genuinely needed it.

OF COURSE WE CAN!

If a government of any political persuasion had the guts to introduce such a fee, despite my lack of research in this area, I believe we would halve the number of people simply attending emergency services for minor issues, Hospitals would be able to properly do the things they are there to do, GPs would have less stress and the whole Health system would improve dramatically as would staff morale amongst Emergency Health medical professionals.

But it won't happen will it? It's not a vote catcher.

Or can it be done? If enough of you reading this stuff got behind the concept, I am sure we could persuade those in power to re-think this whole area of free medical treatment for all. In the end, we'd all, even the bludgers in our society, benefit with a far more efficient, more friendly, more capable GENUINE Health Service.

I'd welcome your thoughts.

Goodnight all,

Ben