Urgent calls for hospital funding top up

Public hospital doctors across NSW are calling on the government to urgently increase hospital budgets as demand soars and cost cutting puts patients at risk.

This year’s health budget of $31.873 billion was a 2.97 per cent increase on last year’s budget of $30.951 billion – yet demand on emergency departments, ambulance services and surgical services has soared, according to the latest Bureau of Health Information quarterly performance report, while inflation has been sitting at about 3.8 per cent making it challenging for hospitals to purchase vital supplies, equipment and food.

In a survey conducted by AMA (NSW), Medical Staff Council chairs from 12 local health districts and two speciality networks, also called for urgent award reform, a greater focus on recruitment and more doctor involvement in decision making.

Doctors reported their local health districts were between $6 million and $100 million over budget, resulting in recruitment freezes, no funding for new services and the closure of beds.

Others said taking leave entitlements to attend specialist education and training was being made so difficult they were missing vital opportunities to upskill and stay current in their practice, while some said their hospitals were unable to perform adequate volumes of elective surgeries due to a lack of staff.

Many hospitals had grown significantly with new infrastructure under the previous government, but doctors report the workforce had not grown to meet increased bed numbers and activity levels.

“Our Medical Staff Councils from across NSW are making it very clear they are in crisis,” says AMA (NSW) president Dr Kathryn Austin.

“Their budgets are insufficient to meet demand, and when doctors are in crisis, patients suffer. This is untenable and we call on the NSW Government to provide an urgent top up to the budgets of local health districts so our doctors, nurses and allied health staff can meet the needs of our patients.”

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