Thursday 18 June 2009
DELLA DROPS THE BALL: HEALTH BUDGET IGNORES HOSPITAL BED CRISIS
Health Minister John Della Bosca has failed to address the bed crisis in our public hospitals with a woefully inadequate allocation in the State Budget, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.
In November 2007 the AMA submitted that NSW needed an additional 1,600 hospital beds to be opened to bring occupancy rates down to the safe level of 85%.
Annual reports show there were 23,969 hospital beds in NSW when the Coalition was last in Government in 1994/95.
Despite increasing demand as the population grows and ages, Labor has cut 2,500 hospital beds over 14 years. The Government now counts cots, bassinets and even beds at home to try and increase the official figures.
“Health Minister John Della Bosca’s beds announcement is a sick joke,” Mrs Skinner said.
“A total of 69 of the 106 ‘new’ beds will only be available to patients in Medical Assessment Units, and will do nothing to unblock emergency departments,” she said.
“A total of 37 beds for hospitals across NSW is woefully short of the 1,600 the AMA say we need, and far fewer than the 1,572 needed simply to bring the total back to what it was when the NSW Liberal/Nationals were in government.
“Labor are the hospital bed slashers, the NSW Liberal/Nationals are the bed builders.
“The only way to unblock emergency departments is to open more ward beds.
“Opening more ward beds will allow patients who need to be admitted to be moved out of the emergency department more quickly, allowing waiting ambulances to more quickly off load their patients so they can be treated.
“A NSW Liberal/Nationals Government will work towards restoring the hospitals beds that have been progressively closed by Labor over the past 14 years,” Mrs Skinner said.
AVERAGE AVAILABLE BEDS IN NSW PUBLIC HOSPITALS
Coalition years in Government |
Total Hospital Beds |
1988/89 |
20,867 |
1994/95 |
23,910 |
Net result |
+3,043 |
(Source: 1989 NSW Health Annual Report, 2001 NSW Health Annual Report)
Labor years in Government |
Total Hospital Beds |
1994/95 |
23,910 |
2007/08 |
21,397* |
Net result |
-2,513 |
(Source: 2001 NSW Health Annual Report, 2008 NSW Health Annual Report)
*Cots, bassinettes and beds in homes were included in official State Government bed counts from 1 July 2002. There are an estimated 1,000 beds of this kind across the State, and this number has been subtracted from this data to enable genuine comparison.