Bed closures were among plans announced by hospitals because of the funding brawl between federal and state governments. Source: Herald Sun
PREMIER Ted Baillieu again lashed out at the Prime Minister, saying the return of the federal health funding is "nonsense and a short term fix'' that would not address the bulk of the looming problems.
The $107 million cut to Victorian hospitals has been reversed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a move welcomed by the hospitals association.
But Mr Baillieu said today the backflip would not solve all the problems.
"The damage has already been done. It is going to take some time for the hospitals who receive this money now to reverse the changes they have put in place,'' Mr Baillieu told 3AW.
"You don't do this sort of thing in the middle of the year.
"They (hospitals) have to rehire staff, they have got to reschedule patients, they have got to reschedule operating theatres - it is going to be very difficult, it is going to take some time, the damage is already done and then on July 1 these cuts resume.''
Ms Gillard announced the backdown in what she called a "rescue package" that could be passed on to hospitals immediately.
The money will bypass the State Government and go directly to hospital boards.
Hospitals had already announced plans to cut about 20,000 elective surgeries over the next four months, close 350 hospital beds, shut overnight emergency departments and axe staff because of the funding brawl between the federal and state governments.
The hospitals affected ranged from the Royal Children's, The Alfred and Peter MacCallum to Bendigo, Colac and Lilydale.
It will be paid for through the extraordinary step of ripping away other money earmarked for Victoria for occupational health and safety and will "count against" future projects.
Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association spokeswoman Prue Power says the decision is a win for patients and should be replicated for every state.
"This will be welcomed by patients and those on the waiting list for elective surgery," Ms Power said.
"The Commonwealth should apply this reversal to all states and territories to regain their trust and confidence."
Ms Power said the move should end the long-running stoush between the two governments.
In a letter to Premier Ted Baillieu, Ms Gillard accused Victoria of "a disingenuous and purely political campaign".
She said the state was to blame for the cuts because it managed the hospital system and despite receiving other federal money, it had decided to hurt patients.
The federal backdown applies to Victoria only for this year.
With much of the reinstated health funding being taken from Victoria's occupational health and safety reward payments, Mr Baillieu said the state was being punished for leading the nation, although he conceded other state's would now being queuing up to have their health funding handed back.
"The other states are not going to be too happy about this...the health ministers have been talking and they are furious,'' Mr Baillieu said.
Victorian Health Minister David Davis welcomed the return of the 2012-13 funding as a "first step", but said he would push for ongoing cuts to be returned over the next three years.
"The Federal Government now needs to follow up and restore the full amount of $475 million," he said.
Mr Davis said the cuts had crippled Victoria's health system and it would take a long time for the impact to be reversed, even with the return of this year's funding.
Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said the money would be paid directly to hospitals and would bypass the Baillieu Government.
"The money will not pass through the hands of the Baillieu Government, which has proven itself to be a cruel and incompetent manager of the Victorian health system," she said.
"For two years Premier Baillieu's blatant disregard for the welfare of Victorian patients has seen beds close, elective surgery waiting lists blow out and standards of care decline."
''This funding injection will go directly to frontline hospital administrators so they can immediately restore services shut down by the Baillieu government in recent months.''
The funding cut was announced in Treasurer Wayne Swan's Budget update in October and based on a complex formula and controversial population estimates that Victoria said were outdated.
The State Government said it was outrageous because it had changed the amount of funding in the middle of the financial year.
Ms Plibersek said the State Government had used it to cover up its own $616 million health funding cuts.
She said federal funding for Victoria's health system was increasing by $900 million over the next four years to $4.5 billion a year by 2015.
Federal Opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton saidMs Plibersek and Ms Julia Gillard would have a lot of explaining to do about whether or not funding was going to be restored to Queensland, NSW and South Australia.
"I think those jurisdictions will say to Julia Gillard why is it good enough to restore funding to Victoria ... but not in NSW, Queensland and South Australia," he told ABC television.
"This has been a sad and chaotic episode from the Gillard government.
"And of course the hardest part of this to understand is that, why did the government announce these cuts part-way through the financial year?"
Victorian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale said the backdown by the government came on the eve of a Senate inquiry forced by the Greens that would have embarrassed it.
"It appears that the government manipulated ABS data to justify the cuts," he said.
The architect of Medicare John Deeble slammed the federal hospital funding cuts describing the misuse of population figures to justify them as "contentious" and "extraordinary" in a submission to the Senate inquiry.
"They deliver cuts that should be spread over several years in just a single year," he said.
Evidence to the same Senate inquiry which begins hearings in Melbourne on Thursday also shows the Federal Government ignored the advice of the Australian Bureau of Statistics when recalculating population growth.
- with Sue Dunlevy and AAP
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