I don’t want to say too much because I have a piece in the Weekend Australian on the topic of ‘health and hospital reform’.
But you do have to laugh? What did the Health Minister think was going to happen when her government chopped Victoria’s hospital funding by $107 million mid-financial year? Clearly she had been asked to serve up some ‘saves’ for the Treasury’s useless pursuit of a budget surplus.
And now she has had to back down, but don’t worry everyone, it was all Ted’s fault. If it was Ted’s fault, why did she feel the need to restore the funding.
But because the feds are only giving the money to Victoria – direct to the hospital networks (how will that work? public hospitals are owned by state governments? do the hospital networks even have their own bank accounts? what about the School Chaplains legal precedent?).
But a major secondary row is brewing:
- with the other states which had their funding cut
- over funding in the out years.
Well-done Tarns, Wayne and Jools. As one wag said to me, maybe the government will do better in its third term!
See? rudd would have fixed all this, if he hadn’t been encouraged to step down…
Rabz
21 Feb 13 at 1:50 pm
What, are you saying the spin campaign where they were blaming Red Ted for all the bed closures was nto working?
Morons
Token
21 Feb 13 at 1:51 pm
Maybe they know a lawyer who can set them up with a suitable bank account that’s off the record?
ar
21 Feb 13 at 2:01 pm
The damage is already done. Hospitals around Victoria are laying off staff and closing down beds already.
Andrew
21 Feb 13 at 2:06 pm
Yes, it’s time for the Vic Hospitals Reform Association!
Pedro
21 Feb 13 at 2:13 pm
my comment from the radio website:
“What you haven’t realised is that dozens of specialist doctors (12 years of training contributed by the public health system as well as out of the doctors’ pockets) have been made redundant already, many are looking at jobs abroad…and huge numbers of nurses on 457 visas sent on leave without pay are planning to go back home (they couldn’t work here in any other job by law)…it will take 5 years to overcome this disaster. I haven’t lost my job but have arranged private work for several weeks while I was to be on unpaid leave; this can’t be changed as I am contracted to do it; so there go twelve operating sessions. Fiasco”
Generally my understanding is that once they pay you a redundancy that is it, and you are excluded from employment for five years or so, so now they are scrambling to work out how to re-employ people. A lot of doctors weren’t fired, but had their hours sliced down to the minimum legally allowed before they are considered terminated.
dan
21 Feb 13 at 2:21 pm
Dan, you are absolutely right.
And this is one hell of ship to turn around so it will take quite a long time.
Judith Sloan
21 Feb 13 at 2:28 pm
Hopefully that’ll be in 40 years
Maws
21 Feb 13 at 2:36 pm
Which will no doubt be committed to the election of former trade union officials running on a platform for the reform of public hospitals…and in any case, shut up!
Skuter
21 Feb 13 at 2:43 pm
Nightmare! That would be the epitome of Einstein’s definition of insanity.
Biota
21 Feb 13 at 3:07 pm
The question is not whether thay have their own bank accounts (they surely do), but whether they can legally contract directly with the Commonwealth to accept funds/monies directly from the Commonwealth for any specified purpose. Perhaps not, as the normal Commonwealth/State health funding arrangements provide for monies to go to the State Health Departments and then be either drawn down by the health networks or paid by the State Health Department into each health network’s bank account. In either case the progressive drawdowns or direct deposits are those formally approved in advance by the State Health Department.
Septimus
21 Feb 13 at 4:35 pm
“3rd term”
hahahah…heheheh…hahahah
wal1957
21 Feb 13 at 5:18 pm
All the people sacked, elective surgeries cancelled, lives ruined. It will literally take years to recover. It is disgusting.
Anon
21 Feb 13 at 6:21 pm
Julia accuses Baillieu of playing politics in a vicious letter…oh the irony!
Andrew
21 Feb 13 at 7:25 pm
Don’t forget to mention the worst of it. The Liar is giving the money directly to Victoran hospitals, but she is funding it be cutting the money she is giving to the Victorian Government to fund other health programs. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
She really is crap.
Johno
21 Feb 13 at 7:47 pm
Well I guess the very limited good news in this is that the Coalition will enjoy an increased majority in the Vic state parliament.
wreckage
21 Feb 13 at 9:30 pm
I doubt it wreckage. The hospital system here is a farce anyway, with billions spent on capital works and no money left to run a viable elective surgical program. I could tell you some stories about the building program but I need to keep my job.
The more I think about this debacle the more it seems like the most incompetent, bizarre and unforgivable bit of political cretinism I have ever seen.
WITHDRAWING >$100M, AND AFTER EVERYTHING TURNS TO SH!T “GIVING IT BACK”??!!! AAARRRGHGHHH
dan
21 Feb 13 at 10:24 pm
‘s’what I’m sayin’, Dan. They cut money from hospitals, the premier gave ‘em what for, and they gave it back – which was as much as admitting guilt – but the screw-up lived on.
That makes the Premier look tough and effective and the ALP look both evil and ineffectual.
wreckage
21 Feb 13 at 11:00 pm
Julia Gillard says she will ‘rearrange’ state budgets
That’s fine. Voters are set to ‘rearrange’ the federal Labor caucus…
Skuter
21 Feb 13 at 11:12 pm
And the $100 million given back will now pay for half of what it would have, had it remained in place. At Tanya at some point will bob up to say how the Vic government couldn’t fix the damage done, even though funding was fully restored. See, it will still be Ted’s fault in Plibber world.
Keith
21 Feb 13 at 11:16 pm
More like gangsters than a government. A new low.
anonandon
21 Feb 13 at 11:23 pm
Even for these cretins surely a screw-up like this requires a resignation, especially once funding is restored to all the other states. In private industry Plibersek would be completely unemployable after this fiasco.
Dan
22 Feb 13 at 9:50 am