Victoria, Australia, plans to invest $ 12 billion ($ 8.5 billion) to improve the healthcare system as part of the state budget from 2022 to 2023.
Victoria’s Treasury Minister Tim Pallas announced as part of the state’s eighth budget. Give top priority to patients On May 3, he said he would provide additional support to state health workers and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on nurses, paramedics, emergency care workers, and elective surgery.
“This pandemic restoration plan means more staff, better hospitals, and first-class care,” Pallas told Congress.
Under the new budget, the Victoria State Government will train and hire 7,000 medical staff, including 5,000 nurses.
Specifically, spending $ 80 million to hire 400 new surgical nurses, improve the skills of 1,000 nurses and theater technicians, and engage up to 2,000 expatriates and international healthcare. Hire a person.
An additional $ 2.3 billion will be used to upgrade and build new hospitals, including the previously announced Melton Hospital, with an estimated construction cost of $ 900 million.
The state government has also invested $ 689 million Better at home A nursing program that provides medical care to patients at home and $ 124 million to recruit an additional 90 emergency care workers.
In addition, $ 218 million was secured to ease pressure on Victoria’s Triple Zero emergency call service after several deaths while waiting for an ambulance.
With this funding, the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority will be able to hire an additional 280 telephone responders in addition to the 120 announced in March.
However, Shadow Secretary of State for Health George Cloger criticized the Victoria State Government’s delay in responding and said the issue of the state’s emergency call service should have been resolved early.
“The Andrews government warned of the shortcomings of Triple Zero in 2016 … two consecutive years of blockades to’prepare our health system’,” she said. statement..
“But the Andrews government failed to act. Tragically, many Victorian people died.”
Opposition leader Matthew Guy agrees with Crozier Said The Victorian people needed a real solution, not a government PR or spin.
Meanwhile, the Victoria State Government said the pandemic restoration program includes a previously announced $ 1.5 billion COVID catch-up program, aiming to provide 240,000 surgeries annually by 2024. I did.
It will also spend $ 521.7 million over the next two years to help hospitals treat patients infected with the coronavirus, and an additional $ 110 million to maintain the state’s COVID-19 route program. is.
Mr. Palas emphasized that the state government is spending $ 44 billion to deal with the pandemic and will not stop spending it yet.
Meanwhile, the Victoria State Government predicted that state spending would decline by 9.7% in the 2022-2023 fiscal year due to a decline in short-term pandemic assistance initiatives.
Treasurer predicted to be achieved by the state $ 652 million surplus By 2025-2026, he said a future fund would be set up to pay the increasing debt.
Victoria will suffer a $ 7.9 billion deficit in the 2022-2023 fiscal year and net debt is projected to surge to $ 167.5 billion over the next four years.
Meanwhile, Guy blamed the Victorian Labor government for handling the health system, saying that a medical crisis broke out before the pandemic and worker control caused damage.
“How can we trust that the government that has caught us in this turmoil will bring us out of the turmoil?” He said.
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Alfred Bui is a Melbourne-based Australian reporter with a focus on local and business news. He is a former small business owner and holds two master’s degrees in business and business law. Contact him at [email protected]