State budget health spending: Billions allocated to ‘Pandemic Repair Plan’

Daniel Andrews is pledging to give under-pressure healthcare workers “an extra pair of helping hands”, with billions allocated to boost the state’s pandemic-plagued health system.

An unprecedented effort has been ordered to heal the state’s pandemic-plagued health system – as well as its individual patients waiting for long-delayed treatment.

Under what it has labelled its Pandemic Repair Plan, the state government has built its 2022-23 budget around a $12bn push to get more patients through operating theatres and 7000 more staff in under pressure health services to treat them.

Victoria’s hospitals were expected to treat almost 209,000 people on the state’s elective surgery waiting list over the past 12 months, but fell more than 45,000 operations short due to pandemic interruptions.

In an effort to overcome the long-term pressures $1.5bn will be spent over the next four years to catch up on delayed operations, including an additional 40,000 surgeries planned for the next 12 months.

The state government is aiming to heal the state’s pandemic-plagued health system. Picture: David Caird

The prolonged surgery push will allow 240,000 patients to pass through operating theatres a year by 2024, a 25 per cent increase in pre-pandemic levels of surgery.

Previously announced Rapid Access Hubs at the Barwon, St Vincent on Park, Broadmeadows, Heidelberg Repatriation, Royal Women’s Werribee Mercy, Sandringham and Peter MacCallum hospitals will be vital to the increased operations.

The transformation of Frankston Private Hospital into a public surgery hub is also planned to accommodate 9000 of those additional operations each year.

Training and hiring schemes are intended to provide 7000 healthcare workers, including 5000 more nurses, to improve patient flow through the health system.

A Rapid Access Hub will be included at Peter MacCallum hospitals. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

The nursing influx includes 1125 Registered Undergraduate Nursing students entering the workforce in each of the next two years, while 1000 nurses and theatre technicians will be

upskilled as part of the elective surgery drive.

Up to 2000 of the new healthcare workers are expected to be hired from overseas via a new international recruitment drive.

Premier Daniel Andrew conceded the Covid pandemic had left the state’s healthcare workers under more pressure than they’d ever faced, promising the budget would give them “an extra pair of helping hands” to cope.

“Major boosts to hospitals, increased support for our health workforce and more home-based services will give Victorians the care they deserve when they most need it.” Mr Andrews said

More than 15,000 Victorians a year will also receive care from nurses, doctors and other health workers in their own homes under a $698m expansion of the Better at Home program.

An additional 90 paramedics will also be hired, however efforts to unclog overcrowded emergency departments are intended to have the biggest impact on easing ambulance ramping and response times.

Emergency departments at Casey and Werribee Mercy will see their capacities more than doubled to get patients through more quickly at a cost of $236m.

The new $1bn Melton Hospital will also have a 24 hour emergency department, as well as more than 100 medical and surgical beds, and intensive care unit and maternity

services.

The new $1b Melton Hospital will also have a 24 hour emergency department, as well as more than 100 medical and surgical beds, and intensive care unit and maternity services.

However an opening date is still not being announced, with building works yet to begin.

Efforts to overcome missed GP and other checks during Covid lockdowns will include a $20m boost for additional Brest screen services and a push to catch up on delayed HPV vaccines.

Boost to treat more patients at home

Premier Daniel Andrews unveiled the $698m package to expand the Better at Home program on Monday morning.

The funding boost will provide more Victorians with access to clinicians, allied health professionals and nurses from the comfort of their own homes, in an effort to free up hospital beds.

Mr Andrews spruiked the “Pandemic Repair Plan”, having previously stating health would be the centrepiece of the budget.

“(This plan will) make sure that we can treat more patients, give them the very best care and deal with the impacts of this global pandemic,” he said.

The Premier said he benefited from the Better at Home program himself, while recovering from a back injury he sustained last year.

He was full of praise for Julie, a nurse and now close friend, who took care of him while he was on the mend.

“She cared for me when I was part of the Better at Home program,” he said.

“That meant the world to me and to Kath and the kids to be able to be home, to recover, to get well, to get fit and healthy, so that I could be back here doing this amazing job.”

The Better at Home program was piloted in 2020 and ramped up during the pandemic.

The funding will expand the program to help more than 15,000 Victorians access home-based care each year, in addition to telehealth check-ups.