Commonwealth needs to spend more on Northern Territory hospitals: Australian Medical Association

The peak body for doctors has urged the Commonwealth to up its funding for the Territory’s ailing health system. READ OUR EDITORIAL INSIDE.

THE federal government needs to cough up more funds to fix the Territory’s crumbling hospital system, the Australian Medical Association has said.

It comes a day after a troubling annual report showed the Top End’s hospital system was stricken by growing wait times for urgent surgeries, slow clearance rates in the emergency department and two “wholly preventable” deaths or serious injuries to patients.

The NT Health Minister has defended the results, saying there had been a 30 per cent increase in admissions over the past five years.

Reacting to the findings, AMA NT president Dr Robert Parker said the Royal Darwin Hospital’s poor bill of health predated the Covid pandemic.

AMA NT president Rob Parker President said more funds were needed to help the Territory’s health system. Picture: Julianne Osborne

Dr Parker said he had been pushing the federal Health Minister Greg Hunt in 2019 for extra funding to help ease the burden.

“As I pointed out a couple of years, (there needs to be) more primary care, more people in primary care and communities to prevent avoidable admissions and more money to hospitals to increase bed numbers and allow better patient flow through,” he said.

Dr Parker said it was a case of “more money, as I pointed out to Greg Hunt”.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner said his government had been in discussions with the Commonwealth over funding.

“We would obviously welcome additional funding,” Mr Gunner said.

Health Minister Greg Hunt. Picture : NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

But he said the NT government was not anticipating extra support from Canberra, despite the prospect of Covid-19 becoming endemic in coming years. “But I’ve got to, in dealing with Covid, deal with what I know and what I’ve got,” he said.

A spokesman for federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said Commonwealth funding for NT hospitals had increased 148 per cent since 2012-13.

“Hospital funding from the NT Government has only increased by 111 per cent in the same time,” the spokesman said.

Story continues below.

NT News Editorial: Poor Health a long time coming

OUR frontline health workers are at breaking point, with a terrifying annual report released this week showing the Top End’s hospitals are beginning to buckle.

Wait times for surgeries are blowing out, two patients have either died or been left with longlasting impacts as a result of preventable errors, and the tales from the frontline are troubling.

Talk to those in hospitals and they’ll tell you the crisis engulfing the Territory’s largest hospital – the Royal Darwin Hospital – has been years in the making.

It didn’t start with Covid, although it certainly hasn’t helped.

Poor morale, high workloads and chronic understaffing has led talented medical professionals to look elsewhere for careers.

Years, if not decades, of neglect has resulted in a system which is fragile and can’t absorb shocks.

Advocates such as AMA NT president Dr Robert Parker have been sounding the alarm since at least 2019, urging the Commonwealth and NT government to get serious with funding our health facilities.

It starts with reversing the NT government’s stubborn commitment to freezing nurse and doctor pay packets for four years.

Proceeding with this foolish ‘budgetary’ measure will only make positions interstate more attractive, especially when health workers are in high demand across the nation.

According to the Administrator of the National Health Funding Pool Annual report, the Territory’s hospitals received $1.4b in funding in 2020-21.

Of that funding, only $300m is provided by the Commonwealth, with the rest paid for by the NT government.

The $1.4b spend is up significantly on the $800m spent on public hospitals in the Territory in the 2013-14 financial year.

Originally published as Commonwealth needs to spend more on Northern Territory hospitals: Australian Medical Association