Community
31 July, 2024
McArthur calls for hospital answers
RUMOURED health funding cuts in Victoria will force mergers which will leave patients in Western Victoria travelling for hours to access hospital and healthcare services, according to Member for Western Victoria Bev McArthur.
Mrs McAthur raised the matter in Parliament saying, “the impending mergers of regional health authorities in my electorate is forced upon country patients by Labor’s inability to manage money and it’s affecting regional Victorians most severely”.
She said this comes after a member of a regional hospital board, who does not want to be identified for fear of repercussions, revealed 25 health services were told that their funding will be slashed by up to 30 per cent and to draw instead on reserves into 2025.
Mrs McArthur described the Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas’s earlier response to her on this topic as “complacent nonsense”.
“The Minister might issue statements pretending there’s nothing to see here, but Victorians only have to compare their experience to her denials to recognise them for the offensive fantasy they are,” she said.
“I have previously raised my concern about non-disclosure agreements forced on regional health board members and also about local health service charity and campaign community fundraising being swallowed up. My question today is more fundamental.
“Merging into one super-structure might provide cheaper services like operations by individual unit cost if they are all performed centrally, but Minister, how can you guarantee that bean-counting bureaucrats will properly assign a dollar value to the incalculable benefit for patients and their families of having services provided in local hospitals?”
Mrs McArthur said given many regional hospitals are jointly funded by Federal and State Government, this also raises questions as to which services will be retained and which will be lost.
“Why is it my rural constituents have to constantly pay the price for Labor's inability to manage massive infrastructure projects on time and on budget in metro Melbourne, thereby affecting vital funding of rural roads and now hospitals?” she questioned.