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AMA (NSW) Vice President Dr Fred Betros said this year’s health budget is a serious blow to the state’s ailing system.
“This year’s health budget of $31,873 billion is a 2.97% increase on last year’s budget of $30,951 billion. It falls below actual health CPI meaning that after health inflation this is an effective loss.”
While the NSW Government’s announced areas of investment, they have failed to deliver resources which will fix the most significant holes in the NSW Health System.
Dr Fred Betros said, “As a surgeon in Western Sydney there is little comfort in this budget for my patients and for thousands of the sickest patients across New South Wales.”
“This is bad news for anyone on the elective surgery waiting list as there is no new funding to address this urgent and ongoing problem.”
“This government claims to have fixed elective surgery but the number of patients on elective surgery waiting lists are going up. According to the most recent figures from the Bureau of Health Information at the end of the last quarter (1 Jan – 31 March) there were 93,839 patients on the waiting list up from 88,618 on the December 2023 quarter. Without further funding this number will continue to grow.”
“While the government has made some investment in Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centres this will do little to help those who most need care.”
“The BHI data confirms that our hospitals are populated primarily by the sickest patients of all – patients in categories one, two and three. It is in these categories that numbers have grown.” Dr Betros said.
The biggest growth has been in category two which has grown from 94,234 in the first quarter of 2019 to 123,935 in 2024, a growth of 31%. Category three has grown 16.5% on the same quarter in 2019.
Category five, the least sick patients has fallen over the long term – from 71,043 in the first quarter of 2019 to 67,808 in the first quarter of 2024.
“The budget fails to address critical issues around the conditions for doctors working in NSW Hospitals. NSW doctors are now amongst the lowest paid in Australia and the proposed offer will do little to attract and retain doctors to public hospitals, particularly given significant incentives in other states.”
“The budget particularly fails the needs of rural and regional communities by providing limited support for already stretched LHD health budgets in these areas and no effective incentives to retain doctors in regional and rural communities.” Dr Betros said.
AMA (NSW) welcomes the announcement of $5.1 billion for domestic violence services.
AMA (NSW) welcomes the announcement that NSW will be the first state to provide legislative protection for general practitioners for retrospective tax liability.”
Contact: +61 419 402 955 | news@amansw.com.au