South West Healthcare is facing a $919,000 cut to its bottom-line budget as a result of the latest round of savage health funding cuts from the Federal Liberal Government.
The cut is set to hit Warrnambool Hospital in March – creating a funding black hole nine months into its annual budget.
Warrnambool Hospital has been hit hard in the $73 million in cuts from the Federal Liberal Government, in a direct attack on Victorian patients and their families.
The cuts are the result of an accounting trick that has changed the way Canberra calculates health activity funding.
This sneaky trick will see a further $73 million ripped away from Victorian public hospital patients, on top of Malcolm Turnbull’s already savage $17.7 billion cut to Victorian hospitals over the next 10 years.
Despite previously agreeing to Victoria’s counting method, applied by the former Victorian Liberal Government, the Federal Liberal Government, through the National Health Funding Pool Administrator, has back-flipped on how the National Health Funding Pool is calculated and allocated in Victoria.
Victoria has consistently acted within all the requirements of the funding agreement, and there is no reason why Victoria’s funding allocation should be recalculated.
This decision means Malcolm Turnbull will claw back $73 million in health funding from Victoria, leaving hospitals across Victoria facing cuts of millions of dollars to fill this black-hole.
This is funding that could have been used to treat 72,000 chemotherapy patients, attend to 180,000 emergency department presentations, or provide almost 12,000 elective surgeries.
Due to the change in counting measures, Victoria will not only lose $73 million upfront, we will be slugged by a further $36.6 million cut every year from now into the future.
This sneaky counting trick comes at a time when our hospitals are already under immense pressure due to Malcolm Turnbull’s impending $17.7 billion cut to our health system.
This callous decision will see Victorian patients waiting longer for vital care and treatments. This is not good enough and Victorian patients deserve better.
Malcolm Turnbull must immediately reverse this decision and stop punishing Victorian hospitals and patients just to prop up his budget bottom line.
Quotes attributable to Member for Western Victoria, Gayle Tierney MP:
“These cuts are a direct attack on Warrnambool Hospital, and will see patients waiting longer for surgeries and treatment.”
“This is not good enough, and Warrnambool patients deserve better.”
“Before the last election, the Liberals promised they wouldn’t cut health – yet all we’ve seen is cut, after cut, after cut.”