THE Victorian government says it’s fighting to ensure patients are not disadvantaged by federal hospital funding cuts.
Victorian Health Minister David Davis said in the lead up to July 1, it was clear the Commonwealth would not be renewing the National Partnership Agreement on improving hospital services, which funds a number of subacute beds across the state.
“There are a number of programs that the Commonwealth has indicated that there’ll be impacts on,” Mr Davis told reporters on Monday.
“Suggesting that the funding in the budget … the Commonwealth component of funding would simply be CPI plus population growth, now that would be insufficient to keep pace with the costs that our hospitals are experiencing.”
Mr Davis said the state government is fighting hard to make sure patients and the health system are not disadvantaged.
At a meeting in Sydney on Sunday, state and territory leaders rejected the cuts as completely unacceptable and said hundreds of hospital beds would have to be closed across the country.
But Prime Minister Tony Abbott has rebuffed a demand from premiers and chief ministers for an emergency meeting with him before the end of July, saying he speaks regularly to state and territory leaders.
He says the cuts won’t come for three years so the Commonwealth and states have time to develop a new funding model.
Victorian Premier Denis Napthine dismissed suggestions the cuts would have no impact until 2017.
“Our advice is that’s simply not accurate and we need to sit down and sort that out,” he told ABC radio.
State Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews accused the premier of mock outrage.
“I don’t know that someone who’s presided over the longest waiting list in Victoria’s history has a lot of credibility on health cuts,” he told Fairfax Radio.
Source: Herald Sun