Brumby withdraws opposition to Prime Minster’s health care plan

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 21 2010

In the GST revenue debate that has been on for the past few days, all states and territories except WA have already agreed to give up a third of their GST revenue to the Commonwealth from which more funds will be coming in for the national hospitals funds according to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s plan.

Mr. John Brumby the Victorian Premier was holding out on this plan in favor of a 50-50 sharing model. Now he has joined the bandwagon and the opposition has thus accused him of “caving in” and “selling out.” The deal means an extra $890 million and 332 hospital beds for Victorian health care. These will be sub-acute beds to relieve the pressure on hospitals. They will come in for patients receiving palliative care, rehabilitative, geriatric and mental health care.

But the Opposition spokesman David Davis believes this will not fare well for Victorians. “[John Brumby] said he wouldn't cave in unless he got 1.2 billion dollars annually extra, but he did cave in and he sold out…The real fact here is that John Brumby is Labor first, and Victorians second,” he said.

Opposition leader Ted Baillieu echoed these words saying, “John Brumby folded. He's come back with barely 20 per cent of what he was asking for…This deal will leave Victoria barely, barely, covering some of the growth in the years ahead.”

Mr. Brumby’s earlier stand off was supported by Australian Medical Association's (AMA) Victorian president, Dr Harry Hemley. Now he believes that Prime Minister’s proposal will not be adequate for the state's hospital bed shortage. “We've estimated that we need just 600 beds just to catch up and 187 beds per year to keep up with the increased growth in our population,” he said.

Health Minister Daniel Andrews retaliated to such accusations by saying that almost $1 billion new funds will come into the health care system. “This is good for Victorian patients, there's no argument about that….” He said the extra beds were needed, “When they're fully open they'll treat 5,000 patients alone, each and every year.” According to him the goal was to induce the Commonwealth to spend up to 50% on hospitals, “We've lifted the Commonwealth's contribution from about 41 per cent to around 45 or 46 per cent. That's real improvement.”

This morning the Prime Minister replied to these questions and arguments by saying, “I can't turn things around overnight…I cannot wave a magic wand and say here are 6,000 extra doctors to staff the system tomorrow.”