$760m extra for hospitals while health system fixes are found

The states will keep pandemic-era funding levels for their hospitals for an extra three months, costing the Commonwealth another $760 million, while they look at ways to improve the overall health system.

Priority will be given to getting aged care residents and National Disability Insurance Scheme participants out of hospital beds and into more appropriate facilities.

Anthony Albanese (centre) at his first national cabinet meeting, with (from left) Queensland’s Annastacia Palaszczuk, NSW’s Dominic Perrottet, Victoria’s Daniel Andrews and WA’s Mark McGowan. Credit: Rhett Wyman

The federal government is paying half of COVID-19 state health costs under a temporary arrangement that was due to end on September 30.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the new arrangement was not just about more money but looking more broadly at pressures on the system.

“What it’s about is a recognition that our hospital system at the moment has people who should be being looked after by their local GP, but GPs just aren’t available; that the lack of nurses and health professionals in the aged care system means that many people who should be either looked after at home or looked after as aged care residents end up in the hospital system as well, putting further pressure on the system,” he said.

Before the leaders next meet, Glyn Davis, the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and his state counterparts will come up with options for freeing up hospital beds and creating better links between GPs and hospitals. They will also review the broader state-federal health funding arrangements.

Albanese would not say whether the three-month extension to the pandemic-related funding arrangement was likely to be repeated, noting it would be foolish in June to guess at what conditions might be like in December.

“The decision that we made today to extend the funding is a recognition that there are currently around about 3000 people in hospital as a result of COVID. It is still having an impact,” he said.

Premiers were delighted with the COVID-19 funding extension and also that national cabinet, with a new prime minister at the helm, spent most of its time discussing health issues.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the topic “had been in the too-hard basket for too long” and it was reassuring that Albanese had indicated he wanted action before the federal budget in late October.

Every hospital in the country was still affected by the number of people presenting with COVID-19 while also grappling with longer-term issues such as delays to elective surgery that had been put off to support the pandemic response, he said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was “a refreshing change to be able to discuss health” and have a prime minister who listened, while Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there was a lot of goodwill in the meeting.

“Politics was put aside at this meeting and we’ve put patients first and that is the most important thing,” he said.

“Now the test for all of us will be to work hard in the weeks and months to come, to come up with practical ways in which we can make the system work as a true system [for] GP primary care, as well as hospitals, NDIS clients [and] aged care residents.”

While leaders met in Canberra, disability ministers met with federal NDIS Minister Bill Shorten and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth and agreed to improve the safe and timely exit of NDIS participants from hospitals. There are about 1100 NDIS participants in hospitals waiting for appropriate accommodation to become available.

The Australian Medical Association said negotiations over longer-term solutions must start with some haste because they would take time to sort out.

“The national partnership funding is critical to dealing with COVID demand now, but this short extension will not see us through the hospital crisis, nor through COVID, nor through the additional pent-up demand from two years of lockdowns,” AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid said.

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