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Statement - 2002-2003 State Budget

HACSU State Secretary Chris Brown said that the State Budget handed down prior to the State Election was extremely disappointing for the Department of Health and Human Services. "The health system in Tasmania is facing a crisis and this budget offered nothing to relieve that crisis".

Overview

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 recognises that will be an increase in demand in many areas of the service delivery in 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.

Chris Brown said that "this is not a budget that the needy in Tasmania can take any comfort from".

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.

HACSU State Secretary Chris Brown said that "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 Government's own estimates will 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.

HACSU State Secretary, Chris Brown said, "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" Chris said.

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 I suspect this will place further pressure on the viability of many community based organisations which depend on government funding to survive".

Nurses - the Crisis Continues

The Government's commitment to Nurse recruitment and retention has been questioned by the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU).

State Secretary, Chris Brown said, " 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" Chris added.

The Department of Health and Human Services last year released a report on Nurse Workforce Planning and at the time the Minister committed the government to implementing the recommendations of the report.

"HACSU is extremely disappointed that the Government has failed to use the budget to fund many of the recommendations. There are over 60 recommendations contained in the report and unless there is additional funding for this specific issue most will not be implemented this year."

The Government announced in the Budget that they will continue to develop appropriate strategies for recruiting, retaining, training and supporting staff in nursing. However State Secretary Chris Brown said "there has been enough talk about the problem and what this budget needed to deliver was the resources to implement solutions. It failed. Everybody is in general agreement as to what needs to be done to overcome the nursing crisis but the budget has not delivered any capacity to do so".

"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 a talk but very little action and the result will be fewer nurses in the health system and consequently beds will be have to close."

"The failure of the Government to fund the recommendations of the report, on top of their refusal to pay nurses the Post Graduate allowance suggests this Government is not serious about addressing the nursing shortage." Chris said.

Increase in Demand for Ambulance Services

The budget handed down today indicated that there is likely to be an increase of over 1,400 cases requiring ambulance services in the next financial year but have provided no net increase in funding to the Tasmanian Ambulance service to cope with this increased demand.

Accident and Emergency

Today's state Budget predicts that 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 and unreasonable strain on an already stressed system.