State hospitals will deliver a better service if they were allowed to be run as independent entities, the DA said yesterday.

State hospitals will deliver a better service if they were allowed to be run as independent entities, the DA said yesterday.

Presenting the DA's alternative health policy to the media Mike Waters, the party's spokesman on health, said the government's tight control of public hospitals had contributed to poor service.

"This has created many of the problems with competitiveness and quality that plague the public service, while also ensuring that prices remain high in the private sector because of a small and captive market," Waters said.

"The DA plan will allow each public hospital at present administered by the state to be run as an independent management unit."

The management of every public hospital should be put up for tender so that private healthcare providers could apply to run them. - Sapa