WESTERN Health will close 70 beds and cancel 1300 elective surgeries in the next six months as the effect of government funding cuts kicks in.
Western Health is expected to lose $6.46 million from the Sunshine, Footscray and Williamstown hospitals following changes announced at the end of last year.
The state government said it would lose $107 million out of its health budget because of changes to federal funding, which were based on new population data from last year’s census.
Western Health chief executive, Associate Professor Alex Cockram, said steps had been taken immediately to minimise the effect on patients. “Our leadership team has spent countless hours reviewing every possible option in order to attempt to achieve the savings while having the least impact on patient care,” she said, “but there is no easy choice here.”
Associate Professor Cockram said that while elective surgery was “a very large part” of work at Sunshine Hospital, Western Health was unable to prevent it being affected.
“Operations will need to be rescheduled and this will cause unavoidable increases in waiting times.”
About 200 staff in public hospitals across the state are expected to lose their jobs in a move federal opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton said was likely to double waiting times.
A Western Health spokeswoman declined to comment on possible job losses at its three public hospitals. The federal government maintains funding for Victorian hospitals has actually increased. It said the state government was using the issue as a smokescreen.
Williamstown Hospital last week announced it was cutting surgical activity for three months.
Associate Professor Cockram said about 60 staff would be affected by the decision with more than 750 elective surgeries cancelled. The measure coincides with building a fourth theatre at Williamstown Hospital, due for completion in July.
Australian Nursing Federation branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said frontline nurses at Sunshine Hospital were under increasing pressure and the funding cuts would make matters worse.
“It’s the nurses who have to contact patients to let them know their elective surgery has been cancelled. It’s the nurses who assist patients in the emergency department when they have been waiting there for hours and are feeling frustrated with a system that’s under-funded.”
