00:00At a hospital visit in Melbourne this morning, the Premier was keen to make an emphatic point.
00:07We will not be forcing hospitals to amalgamate.
00:10And I'm not convinced that forcing hospitals to amalgamate is in the best interest of patient
00:14care.
00:15Instead, the Premier walked through a plan to improve Victoria's struggling health system,
00:20beginning with an extra $1.5 billion.
00:23We know there's still a range of cost containment measures that are within the plan going forward,
00:28so services are still going to have to make some difficult decisions.
00:31Those decisions follow months of uncertainty and rallies against rumoured hospital mergers.
00:38The government has said, look, we have heard this and we recognise there are still benefits
00:43and there are benefits in getting people to work together to amalgamate the back offices
00:48and so on.
00:49The new health services plan, commissioned by the health department, has recommended
00:52Victoria's 76 separate health services be grouped into networks to share resources.
00:59We're going to get to maintain our local board, maintain our local branding, which I think
01:02is a very positive thing.
01:04It's not ruling out amalgamations into the future.
01:08This will be amalgamations by stealth.
01:10The new plan recommends Melbourne's hospitals are grouped into these six local networks
01:15and another five networks would bring together regional hospitals.
01:18The review described the current state of the sector as under strain, not fit for purpose
01:23and offering inconsistent access to safe care.
01:26The Premier has accepted 26 of its 27 recommendations.
01:30Accepting these recommendations will make our health system, our hospital system, stronger.
01:36Merging hope with high expectations.
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