The Advertiser (Australia)

April 22, 2010 Thursday

Plea for Timor health

DILI: East Timorese are dying because of bureaucratic red-tape between state and territory health systems in Australia, a US doctor working in Dili says.

Dan Murphy, who treats a few hundred people a day at Bairo Pite Clinic in Dili, hoped the Rudd government's national health reform would remove some of the bureaucratic tape he deals with on a regular basis, trying to get life-saving open heart surgery for Timorese.

With more than 300 patients on his books needing heart surgery, Dr Murphy said much of his time was taken up liaising with hospitals in each of the states and territories.

``I've got a book full and I just cross them out as they die,'' he said. ``If they were in Australia they would be operated on.''

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