Vic govt auctions off medical equipment amid health system budget squeeze

Nearly a million items of medical equipment, including gowns, gloves and masks, will go under the hammer during the fire sale, but the government insists it has nothing to do with money woes.

Gloves, gowns, masks and protective eyewear are among the items being auctioned off. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Almost one million items of medical equipment will go under the hammer as part of a Victorian-first fire sale amid major budget pressures within the cash-strapped public health system.

Gloves, gowns, protective eyewear, surgical masks, syringes and cleaning consumables are among the items to be sold in the first of two public auctions which opened last week.

Details of the auction, obtained by the Herald Sun, show there are more than 300 pallets of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to be sold.

It comes amid concerns by senior government sources that May’s state budget has already blown out by about $9bn, including $1.5bn committed to health services in recent weeks.

The auction is being run by HealthShare Victoria which provides Victoria’s public health sector with supply chain services.

The agency says the PPE is surplus stock from the State Supply Chain set up during the pandemic. Picture: AFP

The agency says the PPE is surplus stock from the State Supply Chain set up during the pandemic to provide medical consumables to Victoria’s public health services.

But questions have been raised about why the medical equipment couldn’t be donated to local hospitals or charities.

A Department of Health spokesperson said some stock had already been donated to the Foodbank and Hope City Mission.

Other stock had been sold and redistributed to other government departments and agencies, including the Department of Education, Department of Transport, Victoria Police and the Victorian Electoral Commission.

The department insisted the “one-off” sale had nothing to do with budgets.

But it refused to answer questions about how any money raised would be used, and why more goods couldn’t be donated.

“We’re auctioning off the last bits of PPE that were acquired during the pandemic to ensure they get used before they expire,” he said.

An analysis of the stock for sale showed that more than 160 pallets of goods were not due to expire until either 2026 or 2027.

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the government wouldn’t ‘put a price on the delivery of healthcare that Victorians need’. Picture: Tony Gough

Opposition health spokeswoman, Georgie Crozier, described the sale as a desperate cash grab.

“Labor’s attempt to sell-off, rather than donate, excess PPE stock reflects just how dire Victoria’s finances have become under the Allan Labor Government,” she said.

“This sale is a desperate move by a government scrambling to find new ways to pay its soon-to-be $1 million an hour interest bill.

“Labor cannot manage money, cannot manage our health system and Victorians are paying the price.”

Hospitals and health services are this week receiving their final budgets for the year after the Allan government backflipped on a plan to rip more than $1bn from the sector.

But it faced a major public backlash and the threat of mass job losses and critical cuts to frontline services that forced a commitment to top up budgets by $1.5bn.

The government, which has projected the state’s net debt to increase to $188bn by 2027-28, has been unable to say how it has found the extra $1.5bn, just months out from May’s budget.

And it has also refused to commit to rule out planned health service budget cuts in future years.

“We’re not going to put a price on the delivery of the healthcare that Victorians need,” health minister Mary-Anne Thomas said this week.

“Every year we look at our budgets. Now, let’s be clear, we currently invest more than $20bn into our hospitals, that’s 25 per cent of the entire state budget.

“It’s important that we continue to ensure that that funding is directed at frontline healthcare and that there is discipline in the way in which taxpayers’ money is expended in our healthcare system.”

Originally published as Vic govt auctions off medical equipment amid health system budget squeeze