Major Melbourne hospitals impose hiring freeze after being asked to cut costs by government

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Hospitals across Victoria are bracing for staff cuts due to pressure from the state government to reduce budget blow outs. The health department is negotiating budget plans with hospitals who are warning cuts will affect patient health.

Transcript

00:00The Victorian Government has a money problem, and part of its solution is an edict to hospitals

00:07to make savings.

00:08Cuts have already been made to non-medical staff, and there's fears it could get even

00:12worse.

00:13Monash, Western and Northern Health this week put a freeze on recruitment.

00:17This memo to staff acknowledges the pressure cuts are having on staff wellbeing.

00:21It's prompting warnings that patient care will suffer.

00:24We anticipate that that will mean job losses, closures of beds, and longer wait times and

00:30poorer outcomes for Victorian patients.

00:33The scale of cutbacks required is massive.

00:36The sorts of cuts that we're hearing are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, so these

00:41are substantial proposed cuts.

00:44Some in government say the plan is about bringing budgets back to pre-COVID levels, and to instil

00:48more discipline on hospital spending.

00:51But right now Labor is losing the political battle.

00:54Questions already exist over its financial management, with record debt, cost blowouts

00:58and rising taxes.

01:00But cuts to health are even more damaging.

01:03No final decisions have been made because there are still discussions that are going

01:07on with hospitals.

01:08Hospitals are yet to submit their draft budgets to the Department of Health.

01:13So any speculation is just that, speculation and scaremongering.

01:19It is now becoming a very real and present risk that Victorians will die.

01:25The government is also staring down the barrel of a campaign against rural health board mergers,

01:30and that could get really ugly.

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