WESTERN suburbs patients are being kept in the dark about whether elective surgeries will be go ahead, despite the federal government reinstating $107 million that was cut from Victorian hospitals.
The government said on Thursday it would return more than $6.6 million to the Sunshine, Western and Williamstown hospitals.
Western Health chief executive Alex Cockram said while the announcement was a relief, there had been no word of how the reversal would be implemented, or if funds would flow into individual health services at its hospitals.
“We will need to work through what this will mean for patients who are awaiting for elective surgery,” she said.
“These are complex matters in a major health service and implementing these measures has been a complicated process.”
Ms Cockram said Western Health had been forced to cut $6.46 million from its mid-financial year budget.
“It has been extremely difficult for patients and staff,” she said. “Over the course of the next week we would expect to receive clarification from the federal government and be able to make firmer decisions about what the announcements will mean for patients and services.”
Maribyrnong Labor MP Bill Shorten said the move was sparked by the more than 46,000 Victorians left languishing on elective surgery waiting lists and by a blowout of ambulance waiting times.
He called on the state government to immediately restore $616 million it will cut from health funding over the next four years, including $37 million at the Western Hospital.
A war of words between the state and federal governments erupted last week, with Premier Ted Baillieu criticising the reinstatement as an interim measure to fix cuts that never should have happened.
Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Andrew Elsbury said the federal government needed to commit to reversing a further $368 million in cuts slated for June 30.
“The federal Labor government needs to end the uncertainty for hospital staff and patients and commit to reinstating all the money that was promised to the Victorian health system by the Gillard government.”
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said patients had been adversely affected by the state government’s funding cuts.
