A Shorten Labor Government will invest $250 million in a Better Care Fund – delivering healthcare sooner and safer, and reducing pressure on public hospital waiting lists.
This is all part of Labor’s war on hospital waiting lists.
Public hospital waiting lists have been stretched to breaking point because of Scott Morrison’s cuts.
If the Liberals’ are re-elected, Morrison will cut another $2.8 billion from public hospitals, putting more pressure on hospitals and putting lives at risk.
Australia’s doctors, nurses and hospital staff are heroes who provide life-saving care to millions of people a year. But they are being asked to do more with less because of the Liberals’ cuts. This puts pressure on the quality and safety of services they can provide.
Labor’s Better Care Fund will help our hospitals by providing incentives to:
- Work with primary health care providers to deliver care in the community – preventing and treating chronic disease early and reducing pressure on our hospitals.
- Reduce re-admissions – improving discharge and follow-up care so that unnecessary re-admissions are avoided.
- Reduce waiting times for specialist visits – so people treated or referred sooner, before illness and injury become more serious.
- Improve quality and safety – rewarding hospitals that provide exceptional care (not just increasing pressure by penalising poor care) and ensuring that data is collected and used to improve care in all hospitals.
As part of our war on waiting lists, Labor will also:
- Invest $250 million to slash elective surgery waiting lists
- Invest $500 million to slash waiting lists for cancer patients
- Invest $500 million for an emergency department waiting time blitz.
Around 600,000 Australians a year go to hospital and end up sicker from preventable complications from procedures or adverse reactions to drugs.
The Australian Medical Association says our public hospitals are under pressure, with “increased numbers of deaths for admitted patients, high levels [of] complications [and] delayed care”. It has called for the Government “to fund hospitals to be better, not just busier”.
Labor’s Better Care Fund will develop specific incentives in consultation with doctors, nurses and staff, and agree these incentives in a new National Partnership Agreement with the states.
Labor will also task the new Australian Health Reform Commission and the Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care with advising governments on how to improve hospital care under this agreement.
You don’t improve our hospitals by cutting them.
We need real change – because more of the same isn’t good enough.
If you want better hospitals not more cuts – vote Labor.
If you want a fair go for all Australians – vote Labor.
