It is, though, a service industry. It is an information industry and therefore we need to provide patients with information and with choices. Health Minister Rob Knowles defends the application of competition policy to health services. This is just a continuation of what has been an evolutionary process for many years now. The days of patients being totally dependent on their doctors for diagnosis and treatment regimes have long passed.
Doctors are vehemently opposed to the idea.
It's a simplistic concept which doesn't work. If you, just for the sake of argument, did have somebody who was the best at something, their list of patients waiting for attention would go down Collins Street, along Swanston Street, across the river and way out into the suburbs. Because if they're the only person treating a particular problem, the whole concept of how our system works falls down. As a possible consumer of health services, when I go and choose a health service I want to have as much quality information available to me as is possible. Beth Wilson is Victoria's Health Services Commissioner.