Any savings found in Tasmania’s health budget should be reinvested in patient care, the shadow health minister says.
Labor MLC Sarah Lovell on Sunday said the state government was pursuing $700 million in cuts to the system instead.
She said Health Minister Bridget Archer had been “dishonest” about the scale of the savings task and called on her to correct the record.
“There is no doubt that we need to review how money is being spent in the health system and that there are savings that can be made,” Lovell said.
“But it is also very clear that the health system cannot cope with any less money.”
Lovell said any genuine efficiencies should be reinvested in front-line care and Labor would support measures that delivered better patient outcomes.
“The responsible thing to do is to review how we’re delivering healthcare and make sure we’re doing that in the most cost-effective and efficient way and delivering the best possible patient outcomes,” she said.
“And Labor is standing ready and willing to work with the government on that.”
But she said the government’s $700 million target failed that test.
“We’re talking about $700 million in cuts, $700 million being ripped from the health budget and that is absolutely going to impact on delivery of patient care,” Lovell said.
Lovell rejected the government’s distinction between front-line and back-office staff, saying there was “no such thing” as backline staff in a hospital.
Rostering staff, payroll staff, work health and safety staff and those managing patient discharges all kept hospitals running, she said.
The budget papers set out both a headline health allocation and a $702 million operational efficiencies target for the Department of Health.
The efficiencies target accounts for almost half of the $1.5 billion in savings being sought across the public sector.
More than $15 billion will be spent on health over four years, accounting for 35% of the total state budget.
Archer defended the target on Sunday, framing the savings as necessary to bring down state debt.
“There are no cuts to the health budget,” she said.
“The Labor Party took us to the last election saying that there needed to be budget repair.”
Archer said the state government was continuing to recruit doctors, nurses and paramedics across the health system.
She pointed to digital transformation and back-office savings as efficiencies that would not affect care.
“We cannot keep borrowing to fund the essential services that Tasmanians rely on, because that is doing a disservice to future generations,” she said.
Treasurer Eric Abetz has said the target will be met through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies, pointing to a 12% headcount reduction at the Department of Premier and Cabinet as a model.
According to the budget papers, health funding will grow about 2% next year and 0.7% the year after – below the Reserve Bank of Australia’s forecast inflation rate.
