30 November 2008

Minister welcomes boost in Commonwealth funding

NSW Minister for Health, John Della Bosca has welcomed the Commonwealth Government's commitment to increase federal funding in public health.

Yesterday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting resulted in a funding package for health of approximately $2.2 billion over five years. This comes on top of NSW's record health budget of $13.2 billion this year.

"This is a step in the right direction, the Rudd Government has confirmed it is willing to take seriously its role in supporting public health," Mr Della Bosca said.

"The former Howard Government shamelessly reduced its share of funding of the State's public hospitals from 50 per cent to only 40 per cent.

"Over the ten years of the Howard Government, NSW has done its best to fill that funding gap.

"Health costs are rising significantly each year and we are faced with an ageing and growing population, coupled with more complex illnesses and treatments, and a worldwide shortage of skilled medical personnel.

"This increase in funding will form the basis of a Commonwealth and NSW partnership to improve health care services for NSW families," he said.

Mr Della Bosca said the NSW Government would use the funding to improve health services right across the State.

"A recent Australian Medical Association national report card on public hospitals showed NSW was the lead Australian State in four of the seven performance benchmarks, including emergency department and elective surgery performance," he said.

"We now have an opportunity as result of the Garling Report to implement an action plan to empower our doctors, nurses and health care workers to make patient care and safety the top priority and further improve health services in NSW.

"The government is determined valuable taxpayer dollars are spent wisely to provide the best care for our patients," he added.

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au