Falling to Bits
I find it interesting that, with all the money being splashed around by governments in stimulus packages, the one part of our infrastructure that does not seem to be participating in this largesse is hospitals. Today, Kevin Rudd announced that he will be giving away $53 billion AUD for infrastructure and rescue packages, but I don’t see hospitals on his list.
Now, I realise that it is better to spend the money on infrastructure that will enhance to countries productivity in the future. Things like broadband fibre and roadways and the like. Having said that, Australia and Britain, especially, have a hospital network that can only be described as falling to bits. Britain,in particular, has a number of victorian monstrosities that have no business pretending to be modern hospitals.
It would seem a sensible idea to use some of the infrastructure money to upgrade the worst of their hospitals. That would be a better use than upgrading school halls.
Note that the urgency to spend money on hospitals is not as dire in New Zealand (though North Shore is quite acute). One good thing the previous Labour government did was spend money on rebuilding and upgrading hospitals. Unfortunately, treasury bullied them into making them too small, but at least they are new.
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Feb 4 09 9:04 pm
I wish we could have a cool stimulus programme like the Austailians did….
..oh that’s right, China buys all their ore and stuff so they can afford it…we have to rely on the EU letting us sell them our butter…..