Hospitals need a Commonwealth injection
AMA(SA) President Dr Michelle Atchison has reinforced the Federal AMA’s call for a significant increase in the Commonwealth contribution to public hospital funding.
On Saturday, 12 February, the AMA released its pre-election call for a major investment from the Commonwealth in the nation’s public hospitals to ‘clear the hospital logjam’.
In media interviews on Saturday, Dr Atchison repeated AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid’s demand for more money for hospitals and for the services that will clear the logjam behind the ramping that is the publicly visible image of the hospital crisis: funding for NDIS, aged care, mental health and other services that will care for people in more appropriate settings than emergency departments and hospitals.
At this time, the Commonwealth funds 45% and the State 55% of hospital funding, Dr Atchison said. ‘We AMA call on the Commonwealth to increase its funding to 50 per cent. The State Government can then use the extra on services to improve hospital performance and capacity.’
Dr Atchison said AMA(SA) will soon release its priorities for the incoming State Government.
The AMA(SA) and AMA media releases can be read below:
