Statement on GetUp campaign about hospital funding

Thursday, 12 May 2016

Media statement from Keith Pitt MP provided to the NewsMail on Friday, May 13, 2016 in response to questions about the GetUp campaign about hospital funding:

What do these ‘cuts’ mean for the Bundaberg region?

The campaign by GetUp is out of date, factually incorrect and a deliberate attempt to mislead voters.

There are no cuts to hospitals under the Coalition Government’s hospital funding agreement with the states and territories.

The Coalition has publicly committed to investing over $95 billion in State and Territory hospitals over five years, yet GetUp has deliberately kept this fact from residents in Hinkler.

We will increase hospital funding by almost 23% percent by 2020.

Bill Shorten is planning to break Labor’s unfunded $57 billion hospitals promise from the Rudd-Gillard era and GetUp have clearly been instructed to create a distraction.

GetUp also failed to demonstrate a basic understanding of how hospital funding was allocated, basing its figures on bed numbers instead of hospital activity, and forgot to include every hospital in their scare campaign.

In a recent interview I (the NewsMail reporter) did with an emergency nurse at Bundaberg Hospital, I got the sense that hospital staff are already doing more with less, and beds are frequently at capacity, which has not always been the case. Is this the new reality for our health service? If not, what will be done to alleviate pressure on hospital staff?

The Federal Government provides health funding directly to the State Government. It is up to the State Government to decide how and where that money is distributed.

How much funding did Bundaberg Hospital receive in the latest budget, and what areas are most in need?

The Federal Government provides health funding directly to the State Government. It is up to the State Government to decide how and where that money is distributed. 

If the Labor Palaszczuk Government has taken funding away from the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service budget, then there are serious questions that need to be answered.

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