‘It’s fairytale thinking’: NT Health Minister and AMA NT blast PM's hospital funding cut demand
NT Health Minister and AMA NT president have slammed the Prime Minister's "disgusting" demand to curb hospital spending, warning the Territory's health system is already $400m short.
A “furious” NT Health Minister and the Australian Medical Association have called the prime minister’s letter to governments demanding they curb hospital growth “disgusting”.
As the ongoing public hospital funding negotiations are becoming more strained across the country, it seems Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned each state and territory there will be no new agreements if negotiations cannot move forward.
This means the previous funding deals would stand for another year.
The letter sent to premiers and chief ministers across Australia’s states and territories detailed directions for governments to reduce growth in hospitals and contain costs to more sustainable levels.
If they fail to do this and do not engage in good faith in negotiations, Mr Albanese warned the previous funding deals could carry over for another year without a 2023 Commonwealth funding agreement being implemented.
Chief Minister Lia Finnochiaro said the Territory was already underfunded and also dealing with an aged care bed shortage crisis.
“Labor promised $60 million for 120 aged-care beds but hasn’t delivered,” she said.
“As a result, up to 80 senior Territorians are stranded in hospital each day instead of receiving the dignified care they deserve.
“Federal Labor need to start paying for what is their responsibility.”
NT Minister for Health, Steve Edgington, told Katie Woolf on Mix 104.9 that he was “furious” when he saw the letter from Anthony Albanese.
Describing a health system that is already “stretched to the limit”, he said the demand to cut back on services was completely “disregarding” the work being done in the Northern Territory.
“The health issues that Territorians are facing here in the Northern Territory is over and above many parts of Australia at the moment,” Mr Edgington said.
“People on the frontline are doing everything they possibly can to maintain the health system and costs at a sustainable level.
“So to see that put into a letter, it really makes me furious because we know the work that goes on here.”
Mr Edgington said he has often said the NT Health system is already $400 million short when it comes to funding and with the recent Code Yellows and “extraordinary” patient levels being experienced, he does not know what cuts can be made.
Especially as the NT also faces an aged care bed shortage crisis.
Suggesting the Prime Minister is either uninformed or unsure on what is happening across the Northern Territory, Mr Edgington said the NT is already roughly six per cent behind other states and territories in federal funding.
“We can’t cut back further,” he said.
“What we do need is to be brought into line with the national funding agreement.”
Australian Medical Association Northern Territory president, Dr John Zorbas, said the letter and threatened action was “disgusting”.
“It’s fairytale thinking,” he said.
“It’s not possible trying to curb growth in a system that is already underfunded. It would be like locking the front doors of the emergency department, it’s just physically not possible.
“It’s like blaming a firefighter for using too much water.
“Our fire is bigger than other parts of this country and we need the resourcing that we deserve to be able to deliver the healthcare that we need to Territorians.
“When Territorians need healthcare, they shouldn’t have to worry about people in government arguing over the colour of the curtains while the building is on fire.”
Concerned about the amount of focus on hospitals, Dr Zorbas said a lot of the problem stemmed from primary care being “left to crumble” by the government.
“Essentially the hospitals are being asked to pick up the pieces for an underfunded, under resourced primary care system,” he said
“We’ll defund hospitals because we haven’t funded GPs properly.”
Agreeing with the Health Minister on the funding shortage, Dr Zorbas said the NT was well below the baseline compared to other Australian health systems.
Earlier this year, federal government said the Northern Territory Government would receive $550 million for its health system and labelled it a 30 per cent increase.
But Dr Zorbas criticised politicians for hailing the move as “extra funding”.
“This is funding that would bring us to the starting line,” he said.
“They’re wrong to use phrases that this is extra. This is simply funding us like any other part of Australia to make sure that we can deliver basic healthcare in our hospitals.”
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Originally published as ‘It’s fairytale thinking’: NT Health Minister and AMA NT blast PM's hospital funding cut demand
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