Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for being here, and the large number of department officials who are here, as well. Going firstly to the issue of hospital funding and the national partnerships, I refer particularly to the budget overview document that states that indexation arrangements for schools from 2018, and for hospitals from 2017-18, and removing funding guarantees for public hospitals, will achieve cumulative savings of over $80 billion by 2024-25. I want to ask whether the minister can confirm what component of that $80 billion of cumulative savings relates directly to public hospitals. Is it the $55 billion as stated by the Secretary of the Department of Health at Senate estimates on 2 June? Can the minister also confirm that no modelling was done on the effect that this reduction would have on the state's capacity to deliver services, and that states were not notified of these changes until the budget was handed down on 13 May of this year.

I also want to refer to details revealed in the New South Wales budget that was handed down today that the cuts to hospitals in New South Wales reflect a cut of at least a billion dollars over the next four years alone. In fact, if you include the cuts that were in MYEFO, it is more than $1.2 billion. I ask the minister to confirm the New South Wales government's assessment, as articulated in their budget handed down today, that the Commonwealth contribution to New South Wales health spending is in fact expected to halve. I ask the minister how many hospital bed closures this will result in. Does the minister know how many hospital beds this represents, and does the minister know what effect this will have on patients in New South Wales.

I also ask whether the minister can confirm that the number of category 3 patients presenting at emergency departments in New South Wales being seen within the recommended time of less than 30 minutes has been increasing. I ask whether the minister can confirm that hospitals are already struggling to meet demand; and to confirm that the billions of dollars of cuts will affect services.

I also want to refer the minister to comments made by the South Australian Minister for Health, Jack Snelling, that the scale of these cuts would mean South Australia having to close 595 hospital beds. That is more beds than are in the Flinders medical service, one of the major tertiary hospitals in Adelaide.

I also refer the minister to comments made by the president of the Australian Medical Association that the hospital cuts are going to be a long way short of what they are going to need to meet the future demand, and that the states, particularly the smaller states, do not have the revenue to be able to cover state health budgets to meet the demands on our public hospital system. Can the minister confirm that this will inevitably mean that services will need to be cut and that the demand for services will not be met? I ask the minister to guarantee that there will be no bed closures because of these cuts. Can the minister guarantee there will not be shortages of doctors, nurses and other health workers because of the government's unilateral decision to cut $80 billion from health? Can he guarantee that progress on elective surgery waiting times and emergency departments will not be affected by these cuts?

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