Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] My question is to the Prime Minister. How many hospitals in New South Wales are unable to accept ambulances carrying COVID patients because they are stretched beyond capacity? How many COVID patients are being forced to take long journeys in ambulances from Western Sydney to the North Shore? Eighteen months after the pandemic began and almost a year after the delta strain emerged, why has the Morrison-Joyce government left Western Sydney so vulnerable?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister for health may wish to add to that answer, but the specifics of those matters we'll refer to the New South Wales government. If we can provide a specific response to those matters, then of course we will. But what I will note is that the federal government, through the National Health Reform Agreement, has ensured that funding for New South Wales hospitals has grown from $4.3 billion in 2012-13 to $8 billion in 2019-20. That's an increase of some 86 per cent—an 86 per cent increase in the funding support that is coming from the federal government that is going into New South Wales hospitals.

Under the new National Health Reform Agreement, the Australian government will provide $41.2 billion between 2020-21 and 2024-25 for New South Wales public hospitals. In the most recent financial year, in 2019-20, the Australian government made a $1.1 billion funding contribution to New South Wales for health and hospital costs through the National Partnership on COVID-19 Response. So, in direct response to the COVID threat, right across New South Wales hospitals we have already put in $1.1 billion to support them in that effort. In 2020-21 and 2021-22 we estimate a further $1.4 billion going to support the New South Wales health system and New South Wales hospitals.

In March of last year we established the private hospitals guarantee, and in New South Wales right now private hospitals have already provided more than 300 nurses to support the New South Wales public health response, and they have also made 19 private hospitals available to the New South Wales response. I'd be grateful if the member could convey that to her constituents—the significant support being provided to New South Wales hospitals right across the state and specifically in Western Sydney as well.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To add to the Prime Minister's answer, one of the things that we prepared for right from the outset was the strengthening of the hospital system across the country. We increased the ventilator capacity to 7½ thousand. In New South Wales that's approximately 2,000. At this point in time, New South Wales has 44 patients, I understand, on ventilation. I'd need to check whether that number has changed in the update today. In particular, as the Prime Minister said, probably the most fundamental thing, apart from building the ventilator capacity, providing surge workforce capacity, bringing workforce back in and adding workforce training, was creating the private hospitals guarantee. That guarantee was to make sure that we had a national partnership where those workers were available to assist the public health system. That's exactly what's happening now. As the Prime Minister said: 19 hospitals, 300 workers already provided, many more available.