The impacts of the pandemic are still being felt by health systems worldwide, and Victoria is no exception. We’ve seen healthcare costs go up, workforce challenges, people not being able to see a GP and people arriving at our hospitals sicker.
To address these issues, we have already made good progress with a number of important initiatives such as our Urgent Care Clinics, the delivery of more planned surgery than ever before, the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals and the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department.
But there is much more to do, and our government is always looking at how we can improve patient care — that’s what Victorians expect of us.
This is why we are working to create a more connected system that delivers the right care at the right time, in the right place, for all Victorians.
However, I am not convinced that forcing hospitals to amalgamate against their wishes improves patient care. I believe that locals know their community’s health needs best and — together with their health service leaders — their voices must be listened to in the delivery of local healthcare.
Instead, our hospitals will retain their local boards while we bring them closer together through strengthened networks — enabling them to work together to deliver better and less fragmented care as close to home as possible for all Victorians, wherever they live.
We will establish Hospitals Victoria to help hospitals focus on delivering frontline care. Currently, hospitals use different payroll and IT systems, and Hospitals Victoria will work to streamline these back-office functions, so hospitals can concentrate on what matters most — delivering world-class care.
Our government has made record investments in hospitals, including recruiting more doctors and nurses, building new hospitals and securing a record pay deal for Victorian nurses.
We’ll continuing to build on that record — investing an additional $1.5 billion bringing to more than $20 billion we allocated in this year’s budget — funding that hospitals told us they needed, and we’ve delivered.
Labor has a long and proud history of supporting the healthcare of Victorians by growing the workforce, delivering more funding to the system and building new hospitals — in stark contrast to the Liberal-National parties, whose track record is one of cutting funding, sacking healthcare workers and closing and privatising hospitals.
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas