"Patients will continue to languish for months and years on public hospital waiting lists despite the announcement of a record $25 billion Federal funding for public hospitals, said Dr Tim Woodruff, President", Doctors Reform Society. It's all about smoke and mirrors, said Woodruff. Of course it's a record spend. "Any new spending will be a record because our population is growing, it is aging, and demand is increasing. It's a scratched record."
"What we really want to know is whether this new spending increases the Federal contribution up towards the 50% level it was set at decades ago. It has hovered just above 40% since the Howard years despite Labor's promise to substantially increase it, most recently promising it would be 42.5% by 2030. The big numbers announcement will increase that percentage a little, but the amount is unstated because it will be small".
"But more than that," said Dr Woodruff," the Federal Government is largely responsible for the one in ten patients languishing in hospital unnecessarily, waiting for an aged care package or an aged care place. There is no promise to address the 120 thousand waiting list to get an aged care package."
"it is worth noting," said Dr Woodruff, "that the other part of the public hospital under funding debacle, the inadequate primary care funding which leads to preventable admissions and attendances to hospitals, is being addressed at a federal level, albeit quite slowly."
Dr Tim Woodruff
