Victorian hospital crisis decades in the making, AMA reports reveals

A peak medical body has revealed the dire state of Victoria’s hospital system and what election promises are needed to address the crisis.

A peak medical body has called for an increase to Victorian hospital funding, pointing to figures which show the state’s hospitals received less funding per capita in the lead up to the pandemic.

The Australian Medical Association Victoria released their election statement on Thursday, describing the state’s public hospitals as “in extremis” after decades of underfunding.

In calling for funding increases, the statement cited figures for 2019-20 which showed Victorian public hospital staffing and bed numbers per capita fell below the national average.

Victoria had 2.3 hospital beds and 14.8 staff per 1000 people, compared to the national average of 2.5 bed and 15.7 staff.

The statement, which outlined key healthcare key ahead of the November state election, acknowledged and welcomed recent long-term funding announcements, but said it was not enough to fix the crisis “right now”.

“This crisis has built up over decades, across multiple administrations, due to, in no small part, to now past lack of sophisticated, co-ordinated, long-term planning,” it states.

“There also remains a profound failure between federal and state governments to sensibly co-operate.”

Victoria’s public hospitals have fewer staff per 1000 people than the national average. Picture: Wayne Taylor

It also stated the AMA had “profoundly serious reservations” about the “trajectory” of reform following Victoria’s Royal Commission into the mental healthcare system and called for greater consultation with clinicians.

The AMA’s other recommendations included public hospital funding that “at a minimum” matches national per capita funding, more inpatient beds, changes to payroll tax for GPs and greater consultation with GPs from the state government.

It comes after the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ crisis summit in Canberra on Wednesday, where president Adjunct Professor Karen Price called for Medicare rebates to substantially increase.

She said red tape was “strangling General Practice”, citing the example of an Irish doctor who waited more than a year for approval to work in rural Australia.

“General practice is in crisis and it’s impacting the health and wellbeing of people in communities across Australia,” she said.

Victoria’s public hospitals are in “extremis, according to the report.

A Victorian government spokesman said they had made “unprecedented” investments in the healthcare — particularly in the past three years — and called for changes to the hospital funding model.

“We’re also creating a new specialised Chief GP Adviser position to strengthen the relationship between primary care and hospitals and embed more general practice knowledge in the Department of Health,” he said.

“We need a fit-for-purpose funding model and cost sharing arrangement between the Commonwealth and states so we can continue providing the services and care that Victorians need.

“Since coming into Government we have recruited more than 26,000 additional workers.”

Federal health minister Mark Butler said the “Commonwealth’s focus is to relieve pressures on the hospital system”.

“That’s why we are strengthening Medicare, making medicines cheaper and fixing the aged care crisis,” he said.

“The former Government froze the Medicare rebate for six years, ripping billions of dollars out of primary care and causing gap fees to skyrocket.”