Victorians continue to pay the price for Labor's financial mismanagement as new documents reveal the dire state of the finances of Victoria's health services.
Out of the 68 health service Annual Reports tabled today in the Victorian Parliament, 52 have recorded deficits for the 2023-24 financial year. In net terms across the 68 health services there is a deficit of $1,013,082,205.
Health services recording deficits include:
- Monash Health $321,278,000
- Northern Health $115,791,000
- Western Health $104,509,000
- Eastern Health $100,043,000
- Austin Health $71,915,000
- Peninsula Health $59,122,000
- Albury Wodonga Health $52,419,000
- Grampians Health $46,870,000
In addition, several health services have failed to maintain benchmark cash on hand holdings, with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre having less than 12 hours cash in the bank across 2023-24.
These significant losses occur as the Allan Labor Government starved health services of critical funding through the 2022-23 financial year and as the Department of Health paid fewer than one in two invoices below $3 million within the required 10 day period since 2021.
Shadow Minister for Health, Georgie Crozier, said: "These reports reveal the extent of Labor's one-billion-dollar hospital cash crisis.
"The Allan Labor Government can find tens of billions of dollars for a new train line from Cheltenham to Box Hill but cannot find the money to pay doctors and nurses on time – their priorities are all wrong.
"Labor's financial mismanagement and record debt is starving funding from Victoria's hospitals and means poorer health outcomes for Victorian patients.
"Labor cannot manage money, cannot manage our health system and Victorians are paying the price."
