Pressure is mounting on the ACT government over how it has come to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on health, than forecast in last year’s budget. The Opposition is refusing to accept Labor’s assurance it acted as soon as possible when it became clear many more people than expected were using health facilities.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00A tit-for-tat over health spending and a budget looking more and more unwell.
00:08You cannot tell me this Labor government didn't have any idea of what was going on before
00:14the election.
00:15We were very upfront in the 24-25 budget that we were seeing demand and cost pressures across
00:20our system.
00:21A surge in demand at Canberra's public health facilities has forced the government to make
00:26a major cash injection, blowing out this year's deficit to almost a billion dollars.
00:32Questions now over when the government first knew the budget needed a top-up.
00:38The Minister says the early signs came when the new critical services building at the
00:42Canberra Hospital opened in August, though it took longer to realise the extent of the
00:48problem.
00:49When we came back in after the caretaker period, the message from Canberra Health Services
00:53was, Minister, this pressure has not only continued, but it has escalated.
00:58The answer not satisfying the opposition, claiming the trends have been clear for years.
01:04It has come home to roost this week that this government has not prepared for the position
01:11that we're in.
01:12As the Territory's public hospitals face more pressure, Calvary John James Private Hospital
01:18at Deakin is slated for a facelift, adding two operating theatres but reducing bed numbers.
01:25As Calvary says, fewer surgeries need an overnight stay.
01:29We will see greater throughput, fewer beds.
01:32The reality is we don't use every bed that's in this place today.
01:36The government will be watching closely for any flow-on effects of this change on a public
01:41system already under pressure.
01:43For now, attention turns to the next budget.
01:46If there's no drop in patient demand, debates over how to meet the government's largest
01:51expense aren't likely to go away.