Demand surged across all areas of the ACT health system. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Chris Steel hasn’t been sighted for a while. No doubt he is hunkered down with Treasury, wading through the numbers in preparation for his first outing as Treasurer, announcing next Thursday’s Mid-Year Budget Review.
It was left to Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith to reveal that a perfect storm had blown away the hospital budget, requiring a top-up of $227 million.
That’s got to come from somewhere, with Ms Stephen-Smith saying hard decisions will be required, and not just in health.
Other directorates and agencies are required to do their bit to support the bolstering of our hospitals and the budget overall.
Mr Steel, still under pressure over what some see as the MyWay+ debacle, will now have to deliver a worsening bottom line and be pressed about where any savings are going to come from. That is, possible cuts to services and programs or project delays.
Welcome to the big league.
Ms Stephen-Smith says all jurisdictions are facing surging demand for services and cost increases, and the ACT is no different.
She says the extent of the numbers fronting up to our hospitals could not have been anticipated, but it didn’t take long for former Greens Cabinet colleague Shane Rattenbury to accuse Labor of underestimating the health needs of Canberrans in a bid to protect the bottom line.
“There are still significant questions about this news that the government must answer, including needing a deeper understanding of the underlying drivers of these 85,000 extra episodes of care in our health system,” he said.
“We urgently need to rethink how we deliver health services in Canberra. This includes a focus on providing more preventative primary healthcare, including initiatives such as government support for bulk-billing doctors’ clinics.
“The government can’t just slap a $227 million band-aid on this issue. Instead, we need an open and transparent conversation with the community about how to more sustainably manage the health budget going forward while delivering better services.”
Ms Stephen-Smith won’t argue about the need to support primary care and preventative health, or getting to the bottom of the increase in demand.
Candidates are the cost of living crisis, the lack of bulk billing in the ACT, and the ageing population associated with chronic ailments. But some of these chronic issues are not just the preserve of older people, as junk diets and lack of exercise leave many young people obese and facing diabetes and heart disease.
Health is a notoriously complex and thorny area that can suck up billions and still be a nightmare for treasurers.
What Ms Stephen-Smith wasn’t prepared to do was sacrifice the performance gains in emergency departments reflected in recent data or the inroads into the elective surgery waitlist.
These are the most reportable and headline-worthy of hospital data. These have been bad for as long as I can remember. Any improvement is not going to be thrown away lightly.
Hospital managers are also going to have to find savings and are probably going to face a fight with Visiting Medical Officers over how they are paid.
The question is can the situation be stabilised?
Mr Steel will hope that it can.
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