Qld budget: Hundreds of staff to be hired and $3bn to be injected into state’s public health system
Treasurer Cameron Dick has announced billions of dollars are to be injected into the state’s public health system under the state government’s new budget.
QLD Politics
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An extra 200 Queensland Ambulance staff will be hired and nearly $3bn injected into the state’s public health system to ensure ill patients can get out of an ambulance and into the emergency department more quickly.
But peak bodies, including the nurses union and the Australian Medical Association Queensland, hesitantly welcomed the increased funding, saying extra information was needed.
The state government’s 2023/24 budget, under Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, included a $2.88bn boost to Queensland Health’s operating budget across five years to mid-2027.
This extra cash will help pay for the workers needed to staff the government’s flagship satellite hospitals as they come online, as well as to add more staff to expansions at Logan and Caboolture hospitals.
There is also $207m across four years to hire an extra 200 Queensland Ambulance Service employees.
A $764m package will go toward reduce ambulance ramping by expanding the hub which directs triple-0 callers to the most appropriate place for health advice and improving how people in a mental health crisis are assisted.
But AMAQ’s Maria Boulton said the “devil will be in the detail” while welcoming “positive measures” to address ramping and elective surgery waitlists.
The calls were echoed by the Queensland Nurses and Midwifery Union, with Acting Secretary Kate Veach saying “more detail” was needed to figure out if the budget’s funding would address the issues.
“(This includes) existing dangerous workloads, workforce shortages and the safety of nurses, midwives and those they care for,” she said.
“There is no doubt more needs to be done to fix Queensland’s existing workforce crisis before the state government can ensure safe staff numbers and skill mix are in place for new facilities and beds outlined in the budget.”
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said the $764m package to address ramping would also include the “use of specialised staff like Transfer Initiative Nurses, patient flow co-ordinators and Mental Health Nurses to improve the care we provide”.
“This investment will have the opportunity to use our nursing, midwifery and allied health extended scope of practice and other alternative pathways for specialist clinics to ensure more patients get the care they need,” he said.
The $2.88bn boost to Queensland Health’s operating budget will also pay for $21.96m in allowances to attract nursing and midwifery students to the regions, and $42m for maternity services including expansion of outreach obstetrics and gynaecology services in rural and regional Queensland.
An extra $81.2m of the budget has also been set aside across four years for the state’s forensic DNA lab following a series of bungles, including funds to design and establish a new Queensland forensic science agency.
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