The massive cash crisis Victoria hospitals are facing

Australian Community Media

If the hospital kitty is running low, it means they are spending more than they have. How does this affect your local medical services? Ben Silvester answers these questions and more in his investigation.

Transcript

00:00 Hi, I'm Ben Sylvester, ACM's Victoria correspondent, and I'm here to talk to you about the massive

00:06 cash crisis Vic hospitals are facing at the moment.

00:10 In the third quarter of 2023, there was a record deficit of $697 million.

00:17 What does that mean for you?

00:18 If the hospital kitty is running low, it means that they're spending more than they have.

00:24 But how does that affect your local medical service?

00:27 Well, if the government doesn't step in and give them a helping hand soon, it could affect

00:33 surgeries, treatments and other services, and mean longer wait times and fewer administrative

00:40 staff.

00:41 Our investigation into health funding found that hospitals were only given their budgets

00:46 seven months into the financial year, making it really, really hard for them to plan and

00:52 manage their finances.

00:54 And some experts are saying the government set budgets that were impossible for the hospitals

00:59 to meet anyway.

01:00 Click the link in our bio and find out just how badly your local health service is doing.

01:07 [music]

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