Hospital cuts ‘savage’: LNP
THE Queensland government has been accused of orchestrating a “savage” $94m cutback for the Townsville Hospital and Health Service through its use of efficiency and productivity dividends.
The LNP seized on Queensland Health’s answers to questions on notice in parliament, which showed that between 2015 and 2022, hospital “productivity” and “efficiency” annual dividends totalled $1.36bn.
The state government maintains that funding provided to the health system wasn’t impacted by the dividends, which helped make the available money work harder.
It comes as Queensland’s hospital system struggles with a resurgence in coronavirus and influenza cases, increasing ambulance ramping, overwhelmed emergency departments and a lengthening elective surgery waitlist.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said these weren’t dividends, they were cuts – the equivalent of building a brand new Queensland hospital.
“When you strip $1.3bn, is it any wonder Queensland has the worst ambulance ramping in the country, dire elective surgery waitlist and emergency departments bursting at the seams?
“The state government needs to accept there is a health crisis of their own making,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“The state government has been asking doctors, nurses and allied health staff to do more with less.
“Patients and paramedics have a right to feel betrayed.”
Opposition spokeswoman for health Ros
Bates questioned where the money from the hospitals’ savings had gone.
“These cutbacks are savage. While our exhausted frontline staff are working double shifts, the state government is swindling money out of the health system,” the former nurse and hospital administrator said.
“Patient care must be the top priority rather than cutting funding from a system under immense strain.
“Why hasn’t the government been investing this money in our broken mental health system, or expanding hospital capacity?”
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’ath said the dividends didn’t impact the amount of funding provided to the state’s hospital health services.
“The productivity dividend does not alter/modify the funding provided to HHSS; rather, HHSS are expected to do more with the same funding levels to improve productivity,” Ms D’ath said.
“An efficiency dividend does not result in a reduction of operational funding but is a realignment of funding to better reflect service need and ensure public funds are responsibly administered. There is no withdrawal of funding from the healthcare system due to the efficiency dividend.”
According to data released by Queensland Health, Townsville HHS’S budget increased by $371m between 2014-15 to 2021-22.
In its recent 2022-23 budget, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the government was acting to address a bottleneck being experienced in every state.
As part of the $1.2bn in funding for the Townsville Hospital and Health Service in the budget, the Townsville University Hospital received $530m for 143 beds.