Public Private Partnerships an international disaster

The international evidence against using the private sector to build and operate health facilities has increased with a new report analysing 100 projects revealing a litany of disasters.

HSU national secretary Craig Thomson said that Australian government's should take heed from the findings of the Canadian report Flawed Failed and Abandoned.

The report was produced by the Ontario Health Coalition which includes Canadian trade unions and looks at PPPs, or P3s as they called in Canada, many of them hospital projects.

It found that many PPPs are late and serious cost overruns are frequent as are decreasing pay and conditions for staff and reduced access to services for the public.

"Democratic control has been sacrificed to commercial secrecy and private-for-profit management," the report found.

"High costs have led to service cuts and diminished access. Long-term commitments of large revenue streams to lease deals has had an unmeasured impact on government flexibility and public policy decision making."

The HSU has campaigning in Australia for governments to keep PPPs out of the health sector, using local examples of the disastrous Port Macquarie and La Trobe hospital privatisations as classic examples of why the strategy does not work.

Mr Thomson said: "Australian governments both federal and state need to be aware that there is a vast body of evidence here and overseas that shows handing over essential health services to the private sector is a disaster waiting to happen not only financially but for the staff and patients."

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Last Modified: Wednesday, 16-Nov-2005 17:18:59 EST