00:00 Hi, I'm Ben Sylvester, ACM's Victoria correspondent, and I'm here to talk to you about the massive
00:06 cash crisis Vic hospitals are facing at the moment.
00:10 In the third quarter of 2023, there was a record deficit of $697 million.
00:17 What does that mean for you?
00:18 If the hospital kitty is running low, it means that they're spending more than they have.
00:24 But how does that affect your local medical service?
00:27 Well, if the government doesn't step in and give them a helping hand soon, it could affect
00:33 surgeries, treatments and other services, and mean longer wait times and fewer administrative
00:40 staff.
00:41 Our investigation into health funding found that hospitals were only given their budgets
00:46 seven months into the financial year, making it really, really hard for them to plan and
00:52 manage their finances.
00:54 And some experts are saying the government set budgets that were impossible for the hospitals
00:59 to meet anyway.
01:00 Click the link in our bio and find out just how badly your local health service is doing.
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