The Victorian Healthcare Association has today welcomed funding in the Victorian State Budget 2024-25 to relieve the immediate pressures facing our public health system.
VHA CEO Leigh Clarke said that this year’s Budget provided a much-needed cash injection into the state’s public healthcare system through a significant increase into the price paid for healthcare. This re-basing of the system is in line with the VHA’s call to fund the true cost of healthcare in Victoria.
‘We recognise that the Victorian Government is in a difficult position with respect to the state’s finances and we welcome this additional funding into public hospitals. Health services have been grappling with a range of unfunded costs and year-on-year structural deficits embedded within budgets,’ Ms Clarke said.
‘However, we caution the one-off injection and rebasing of the price that we pay for healthcare. We need a consistent increase that will be in line with the rising cost to deliver care.’
She added that there were some missed opportunities in this year’s Budget.
‘While the investment in hospital funding is welcomed, the VHA is disappointed in the lack of investment to keep people out of hospital with changing demographics and an ageing population demanding funding models that encourage greater care in the community.’
‘We note that there has been no investment in our community health services to support their delivery of prevention and promotion programs, and no additional support for their hospital diversion activities. Over time, we would like to see the state government increase its investment in the vital programs delivered by Victoria’s community health services that will relieve pressure on our hospitals and reduce the need for care in arguably the most expensive place.’
Ms Clarke also noted funding for the Registered Undergraduate Student of Nursing (or RUSON) model, which will allow nursing students to work to their full scope of practice and relieve workforce shortages. This investment, along with investment to meet staffing requirement in public sector residential aged care services (PSRACS) responds to the VHA’s call for more investment in innovative workforce models to prevent the closure of aged beds that is disproportionately experienced in regional and rural areas.
Ms Clarke said that there was a missed opportunity in terms of local communities preparing for and recovering from climate-related health disasters.
‘Climate change will result in more frequent and intense bushfires, heatwaves, droughts, extreme weather events and coastal inundation in coming decades and these impacts are already being felt now.
‘It’s disappointing to see no investment into disaster recovery and preparedness programs that are delivered by community health services.’
Ms Clarke flagged that the Victorian Government was yet to address the plan for significant changes to the structure and governance of Victoria’s health services – known as the Health Services Plan.
‘It should be noted that the government is pursuing a fairly significant reform to the structure and governance of Victoria’s public healthcare system.
‘We know that health service reform will not be cost neutral. Irrespective of the final design option, there will need to be greater investment into the system to support the change management required to achieve large-scale reform.’
$11 billion in hospital service investment across the forward estimates. Includes $8.8 billion in hospital operating funding – including activity-based funded metropolitan and regional services and those that are block funded (small rural health and multipurpose services)
Of the $8.8 billion, a proportion will cover the structural deficit in this year’s budget for health services
$1.7 billion for hospital and health infrastructure, including across the Northern, Austin and Monash hospitals
$31 million for public residential aged care to strengthen high quality care and ensure staffing requirements are met
$8.9 million for specialist and end of life care in aged care facilities
$55m into the extension of the RUSON model for this year, which is allowing student undergraduate nurses to work within the sector and increase their scope of practice and nurse practitioner development
$146 million for Ambulance services including triage activities and lower acuity care pathways
Further analysis will be provided in the VHA’s member briefing.
The VHA’s 24-25 budget submission called on the Victorian Government to:
Fund the true cost of delivering healthcare to all Victorians by addressing the structural deficit for public healthcare services
and; intervene and mitigate the impact of ‘thin markets’ on healthcare for regional Victorians.
The first call to action recognises that a significant challenge in recent years has been the widening gap between health funding and the true cost of delivering services. There are multiple challenges outside of the control of Victoria’s health services that are contributing to a structural deficit in hospital budgets.
The VHA earlier this year released a fact sheet which explains what a structural deficit is, what it means for our health services and several policy issues that are contributing to the structural deficit based on feedback from Victoria’s public healthcare services.
For further information contact:
Toli Papadopoulos
0408 851 302