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Promises honoured, no surprises - State budget
AMA Victoria President Dr Mark Yates said there were few surprises for health in the state budget but it was pleasing the government had honoured its November election promises.Dr Yates welcomed funding boosts for elective surgery and outpatient services, the rural doctor retention initiative and clinical training.
But the small increase in mental health expenditure, just 4.5 per cent over last year’s budget is disappointing, falling well short of the need in the community.
Dr Yates welcomed the government’s response to AMA Victoria’s call for more support to retain doctors in country Victoria.
“This budget recognises the imperative of addressing the rapidly declining numbers of GPs and specialists working in rural Victoria,” he said.
“Doctors everywhere are working extremely long hours to meet the community demand for medical care but in rural Victoria the pressure on doctors is driving them out of rural Victoria.
“The government package of support for rural doctors is significant for Victoria and will provide much needed support for GPs who are providing essential out of hours emergency services in rural hospitals,” Dr Yates said.
“AMA Victoria believes more can be done and will be working with rural doctors, the state and federal governments to find solutions.”
Dr Yates said Victorians continued to be disadvantaged compared with other states in terms of access to Critical Care and acute hospital beds.
“The government has gone some way towards addressing this pressing problem but five additional ICU beds falls well short of the 25 a year we had argued was required to start to seriously bring Victoria up to the national average. The shortage of ICU beds has major implications for patients waiting for major surgery with the high incidence of cancellations due to lack of access to critical care in our major hospitals.
“Similarly the state remains well behind NSW in relation to public hospital beds per head of population, putting hospital staff and carers under enormous pressure to meet demand.
Health budget break down
Mental Health:
“The 4.7 per cent increase on the previous year for mental health services is disappointing.
“There is no question the government has identified the priority areas however the funding support falls short of the need.
“AMA Victoria’s call for prevention and recovery beds has been acknowledged by the government however we had hoped for a far more significant investment in adolescent early psychosis prevention and intervention.
“AMA Victoria had highlighted to the government the need for an additional $50 million over the next three years required for adolescent early intervention programs alone. The government has allocated just $2.4 million this year.
“The expansion of mental health teams supporting emergency departments is much needed and welcome.”
The capital expenditure to expanded mental health services at the Northern Hospital is also welcome.”
Outpatients:
“It is pleasing to note the government’s acknowledgement in this budget of the importance of community access to public outpatient services with an increase of 7.3 per cent over last year.
“AMA Victoria looks forward to the review of access to outpatient facilities now underway to inform government of the delays being faced by the community and the impact this is having on all sectors of the community but particularly the elderly. “
Elective surgery
“The increase in elective surgery capacity especially in suburban and regional hospitals is much needed and welcome.”
ICU beds:
“It is our estimate that Victoria needed at least 25 additional intensive care beds a year over the next three years, this budget has funded just five adult ICU beds.
“The shortage of ICU beds will result in continued long waits for patients in emergency departments and patients waiting for major surgery will continue to face cancellations due to the shortage.”
More doctors:
Training
“The budget seems to show renewed commitment to supporting medical education and specialist training with a boost of 21.5 per cent in the Training & Development Grant to public hospitals.
“AMA Victoria looks forward to clear attribution by hospitals of this additional funding, so that it does indeed support teaching and training.”
Rural doctor shortage
“This was a priority item in the AMA Victoria budget submission and we are pleased with the decision to increase support for GPs providing out of hours emergency services in rural hospitals.
“The budget support for GPs providing after hours emergency medical services in rural hospitals and continued support for rural GPs to undertake training to be able to offer services such as obstetrics, anaesthetics, general surgery, emergency medicine and mental health care goes some way towards addressing the rural doctor shortage however more needs to be done.
“AMA Victoria looks forward to working with the government to establish other solutions which will secure high quality
Aged care:
“The state government deserves credit for continuing to upgrade rural aged care facilities and support for dementia care in community and hospital settings.”
Co-ordinated care
“The government’s recognition of the importance of continuity of care between hospitals, the GP and community care providers will be welcomed by doctors and the patient advocacy groups AMA Victoria has been working with over the past 18 months to raise awareness of the issues confronted by doctors and their patients on discharge from hospital.”
“We look forward to tangible improvements in this area which causes a great deal of stress especially for the elderly and their carers.”
Bowel cancer screening
“At last we have some financial commitment from the state government for this national program screening the second most common cause of cancer-related death in Australia. “
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