States are threatening to hold up a health deal and major NDIS reforms until the Albanese government stumps up billions more dollars for hospitals, building a campaign with a new report showing that up to one in 10 hospital bed days is occupied by people waiting to go into nursing homes or disability care.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, leading the charge on behalf of state treasurers whose budgets are struggling with the growing cost of running hospitals, released research from former federal Health Department head Stephen Duckett, who found extra pressure on health spending was coming from patients stranded in hospitals.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookey.Credit: Sam Mooy
Together with inflation, workforce shortages and people’s more complex care needs, this contributed to a 12 per cent yearly increase in health costs, which was putting the states on the hook for more than three-quarters of the annual growth in hospital funding.
Duckett, who has also served on federal government health reform taskforces, said this built the case for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Health, Ageing and Disability Minister Mark Butler to increase their funding offer to the states while fixing the flow of patients into aged and disability care.
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“If the Commonwealth got its act together on aged care and disability, it itself could save money because these patients wouldn’t be in hospital. It’s cheaper to accommodate someone in residential aged care than in a hospital bed, and it’s better for a patient,” Duckett told this masthead.
The board of state treasurers released Duckett’s report on Friday, two days after state premiers and territory chief ministers publicly shot down the Commonwealth’s latest funding offer of an extra $20 billion in a five-year hospital funding deal.
Premiers claimed the offer would barely amount to 35 per cent of total hospital funding, when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had promised up to 45 per cent of hospital costs within 10 years in a National Cabinet agreement from 2023. The federal government has since tied the health funding deal to outcomes on NDIS reform.
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