Religious groups criticise hospital co-location

Two religious groups have hit out at the controversial plans to build private hospitals on the grounds of public hospitals, claiming it will create further unfairness in the health service.

The Adelaide Hospital Society and the Jesuit Centre have said that it will not free up as many hospital beds as predicted, and patient care will suffer under private management.

They have released a document calling for a review of the plan.

Director of the Adelaide Hospital Society, Dr Fergus O'Ferrall, said that "co-located hospitals will further and made very visible the very unjust, two-tiered system".

"It will discriminate between patients on the basis of their financial means rather than their medical need and we believe that is radically unfair," he added.