00:00The Victorian Government has a money problem, and part of its solution is an edict to hospitals
00:07to make savings.
00:08Cuts have already been made to non-medical staff, and there's fears it could get even
00:12worse.
00:13Monash, Western and Northern Health this week put a freeze on recruitment.
00:17This memo to staff acknowledges the pressure cuts are having on staff wellbeing.
00:21It's prompting warnings that patient care will suffer.
00:24We anticipate that that will mean job losses, closures of beds, and longer wait times and
00:30poorer outcomes for Victorian patients.
00:33The scale of cutbacks required is massive.
00:36The sorts of cuts that we're hearing are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, so these
00:41are substantial proposed cuts.
00:44Some in government say the plan is about bringing budgets back to pre-COVID levels, and to instil
00:48more discipline on hospital spending.
00:51But right now Labor is losing the political battle.
00:54Questions already exist over its financial management, with record debt, cost blowouts
00:58and rising taxes.
01:00But cuts to health are even more damaging.
01:03No final decisions have been made because there are still discussions that are going
01:07on with hospitals.
01:08Hospitals are yet to submit their draft budgets to the Department of Health.
01:13So any speculation is just that, speculation and scaremongering.
01:19It is now becoming a very real and present risk that Victorians will die.
01:25The government is also staring down the barrel of a campaign against rural health board mergers,
01:30and that could get really ugly.
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