Hospitals' cash crisis an emergency

This week The Courier revealed the state hospital system racked up a $697 million operating deficit - spending significantly more than its budget - in the first quarter of the 2023-24 financial year.

All but one of the state's 23 regional health services were in the red as of September, 2023.

Ballarat's Grampians Health recorded a $25.26 million deficit, the biggest of any regional service.

Warrnambool-based South West Healthcare recorded a deficit of $6.31 million after a $234,000 surplus in 2022-23.

Albury Wodonga Health notched a $22.24 million deficit and Bendigo Health $15 million, while Gippsland Southern Health was the only service in the black, with a $60,000 surplus.

Left unabated, the system is on track to post a $2.8 billion deficit.

That's more than the new taxes and cost savings the government introduced this financial year to repay the state's huge COVID-19 debt would raise in a year.

Sobering indeed.

The public health system is not supposed to turn a profit, it is there to help us in vulnerable moments.

However, with deficits as large as these, will the system be there to help us when we need it?

How has this happened?

A state government spokesperson could offer no reason for the huge budget shortfalls other than "higher than expected demand".

Is demand higher now than during the COVID-19 pandemic?

As we revealed, hospitals didn't receive their actual budgets until late January, seven months into the new financial year and that surely wouldn't help.

Have hospitals been operating in the dark?

Why has the state government taken so long?

The health system's unprecedented financial position prompted the state government to introduce significant cost saving initiatives.

But the government would not outline the measures.

The government failed to rule out service and staff cuts, when asked.

But the government has to be careful because at Grampians Health, more than one in 20 patients on the elective/planned surgery list now wait at least 365 days for their operation.

It forced Grampians Health to consider being able to "load distribute" as is done in metropolitan hospitals when cases are transferred depending on hospital capacity.

Reducing surgeries is not the answer because wait lists will only continue to grow and delaying procedures will only add strain to other areas, GPs, allied health professionals and demand for medications.

A state government spokesperson could offer no reason for the huge budget shortfalls, other than "higher than expected demand".

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and the government need to explain more.

Denying the issue is not the answer.

Saying nothing only leaves a vacuum of worry, which will undermine confidence in the system and the government.

The government needs to provide answers.