Elective surgery waiting lists to blow out because of funding fight: Health Minister Jill Hennessy

Date
    March 10, 2016
    The Age

Waiting lists for elective surgery in Victorian public hospitals will blow out because of a fight over $73 million between the federal and state governments, Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy says.

As Australia's powerful doctors' union plans to unveil "the human cost" of Commonwealth funding cuts to public hospitals nation wide this morning, the Victorian Government has also turned up pressure on the federal government over a dispute about $73 million in federal health funding. 


Ms Hennessy said elective surgery waiting lists at Melbourne Health, which includes the Royal Melbourne Hospital, would increase by 1000 patients as a result of a $5.1 million cut to its budget bottom line by the federal government.


Monash Health, which includes Monash Medical Centre and Dandenong Hospital, was cutting 3000 elective surgery procedures because of a $9.9 million cut to its budget bottom line from the federal government, she said. 

"With thousands of patients set to miss out on vital surgeries as a result of these cuts, it's time Malcolm Turnbull put patients first and reinstates Victoria's funding," Ms Hennessy said.
Health Minister Jill Hennessy says patients will suffer if the federal government cuts hospital funding to Victoria.   

Health Minister Jill Hennessy says patients will suffer if the federal government cuts hospital funding to Victoria.

"The Federal Health Minister needs to explain to Victorians why they will have to wait longer for surgeries because of the cuts her Government has made to our hospitals."   

The money is part of a $73 million bundle that Ms Hennessy recently said was being taken away from Victoria this financial year because of a decision by the administrator of the National Health Funding Pool which distributes Commonwealth health funding to states and territories. Last month, Ms Hennessy said the decision had been advised by the Commonwealth Treasurer Scott Morrison.

But Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley said on Tuesday that the administrator had in fact advised the federal government that Victoria had used a "sneaky accounting trick" to "artificially inflate" state hospital activity to claim more federal funding than the state was entitled to. She rejected Ms Hennessy's claims Victoria had permission to do this.

The government had then "reasonably offered" to cut federal funding to Victoria over a number of months in order to claw back excessive claims.

Fairfax Media understands that the Victorian government, under then-Liberal premier Denis Napthine, coded the state's hospital activity differently to other states and territories in 2013-14, which gave the state an advantage in federal funding.

The administrator has been seeking to resolve this issue with the federal treasurer, and federal and state health ministers since 2014, but was only able to get enough information from Victoria last September to understand the extent of this inconsistency.

The administrator, believing he did not have the authority to adjust this funding on his own, sought Mr Morrison's advice on the issue around December, which led to the decision to recoup federal funding from Victoria retrospectively in February.

Ms Ley is opening a new research facility at Monash Health this morning at 11.15am.

let andrews find the money. he managed to find $1.2B to NOT build a road.  just 5% of that would fix this funding shortfall.