Daniel Andrews: ‘Public hospitals should be in public hands’

MILDURA Base Hospital (MBH) is best placed to provide improved services with a public management model, Premier Daniel Andrews said on Friday.

Mr Andrews along with Health Minister Jenny Mikakos and Member for Mildura Ali Cupper, officially announced MBH would return to public hands in September next year, ending Ramsay Health Care’s term running the hospital.

Watch the full press conference from our live stream:

“Public hospitals should be in public hands, it is as simple as that,” Mr Andrews said.

“Health care is not about profits, it’s about patients and it’s about making sure every member of this local community – or those who are visiting this local community – can get the very best care today, tomorrow and indeed that we improve the level of care as part of a constant culture of improvement.

“Without necessarily criticising anyone who has been working at the hospital, or managing the hospital for the last 20 years, I think we are in the best place to guarantee that continuous improvement.

“We are best-placed to build a bigger, better, broader Mildura Base Hospital with more services on offer – so less people have to leave the community that they’ve helped to build – we’re best placed to do that if this public hospital is in public hands.”

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