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| Winter 2002 |
State budget offers nothing
HACSU State Secretary, Chris Brown, has strongly criticised last month’s State Budget, saying he was’ extremely disappointed for health and human services in Tasmania”.
"The health system in Tasmania is facing a crisis and this budget offers nothing to relieve that crisis," Chris said.
"Whilst the Department's budget saw an overall increase of 6.3%, this will do little more than maintain the existing health system which has been increasingly under pressure in recent years".
"This budget will only increase the workload for employees in the Department, who are already suffering from excessive workload problems".
"The budget recognizes there will be an increase in demand in many areas of health and community services but fails to provide additional resources to meet this demand."
"In particular an estimated demand for services in housing, ambulance services and accident and emergency will place significant pressure on the system."
"This is not a budget the needy in Tasmania can take any comfort from," Chris Brown said.
The BUDGET in brief
Housing - No Vacancies
The Government has acknowledged a 70% increase in demand for public housing over the past two years in Tasmania in an environment where private rental housing stocks have been diminished.
The acknowledgement by the Government that many people eligible for assistance will have to wait longer or miss out all together is an extraordinary admission.
The housing services offered by the Department have been under resourced for some time now and the Governments own estimates mean increasing demands with a reduction in the capacity to meet those demands.
Disability Services - again the poor cousins of the Tasmanian community
The State Budget has again failed to deliver for Disability Services in Tasmania.
Once again the Government has failed to provide the disability services sector with adequate funding.
People with disabilities are amongst the most vulnerable in the community and the hundreds of employees providing care and support through the funded non-government sector are amongst the lowest paid workers in the State.
The State budget does nothing to remedy the poor state of the sector.
There is a small increase in funding but nowhere near enough to ensure the ongoing viability of the sector.
We have already seen some organisations collapse due to the inadequate funding and this budget will place further pressure on the viability of many community-based organizations which depend on government funding to survive.
Nurses - the crisis continues
The Government's commitment to nurse recruitment and retention has been questioned by HACSU.
The budget fails to deliver on the key recommendations of the Nurse Workforce Planning project completed last year.
Tasmania is facing a crisis in nursing and the Government has failed to recognise the urgency of the situation.
The Department of Health and Human Services last year released a report on nurse workforce planning. At the time the Minister committed the government to implementing the recommendations of the report.
HACSU is extremely disappointed the Government has failed to use the budget to fund many of the recommendations.
There are over 60 recommendations contained in the report. Unless there is additional funding for this specific issue most will not be implemented this year.
The Government announced in the budget they will continue to develop appropriate strategies for recruiting, retaining, training and supporting staff in nursing.
However there has been enough talk about the problem. What this budget needed to deliver was the resources to implement solutions. It failed.
Given the size and urgency of the problem HACSU does not believe it is possible for the Department of Health and Human Services to effectively address the issue without specific funds.
There will continue to be a lot of talk but very little action. The result will be fewer nurses in the health system and consequently beds will have to close.
The failure of the Government to fund the recommendations of the report, on top of their refusal to pay nurses the postgraduate allowance suggests this Government is not serious about addressing the nursing shortage.
Ambulance Service
HACSU members in the Tasmanian Ambulance Service were angry over the failure of the Government to provide funding for a paramedic station at Sorell.
Late last year HACSU ambulance members took industrial action in response to the Governments announcement to establish a volunteer station at Sorell.
That dispute was partially resolved by the Health Minister, Judy Jackson, agreeing not to proceed with a volunteer station and to seek funding in this years budget to establish a paramedic ambulance station at Sorell.
HACSU members had high expectations the funding for the Sorell Ambulance Station would be delivered in this budget. Though funding was not provided in the budget, more recently, the State Labor Government's health policy announcement in the recent state election guaranteed a paramedic ambulance station at Sorell.
The budget indicated that there is likely to be an increase of over 1,400 cases requiring ambulance services in the next financial year. But no net increase in funding to the Tasmanian Ambulance service to cope with this increased demand has been provided.
Accident and emergency
The State budget predicts there will be an increase in demand for accident and emergency services provided by the public hospital system but fails to provide additional resources to meet this demand.
The budget predicts an increase of over 3,000 additional cases requiring accident and emergency care over the next financial year.
On top of the current severe crisis in nursing numbers this will place an unreasonable strain on an already stressed system.
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