Media release

From: Pasifika Medical Association Group

Public–private partnerships are used by some governments to build, and sometimes maintain and occasionally run, public hospitals. They can be superficially attractive, as they allow governments easier financial borrowing and access to business expertise. However, the short-term gains often come with long-term pains. The boundary between private business and government responsibilities for providing free, fair access to hospital healthcare become blurred. This has often led, in the UK, Australia, Europe and other places, to failed private hospitals closing or requiring government bailouts. It can also lead to a slow decline into a US-style private hospital system, which is prohibitively expensive and has an unacceptable disparity of standards of care between the haves and have-nots.