The Australian Government is supporting the states and territories to increase the capacity of\u00a0the health system, as the country enters the next phase of the National Plan to re-open and live\u00a0with COVID-19.
\nIn total, the Government has committed more than $32 billion in additional health expenditure\u00a0in response to COVID-19.
\nTo further support the states and territories, the Government will extend the Minimum\u00a0Hospital Funding Guarantee for an additional year (to 30 June 2022) in recognition that\u00a0COVID-19 is still having a significant impact on public hospitals, particularly in New South\u00a0Wales and Victoria.
\nThe funding contribution for public hospitals services in all states and territories under the\u00a0National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA) has grown substantially, from $13.3 billion in\u00a02012\u201313 to $25.5 billion in 2019\u201320, a 92% increase. Over this same period, state and\u00a0territory funding for their own hospitals has only recorded 44% growth.
\nMinister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt said \u201cThe extension will provide security of\u00a0funding for our critical public hospitals while the National Plan is implemented.\u201d
\n\u201cAustralian\u2019s can rest assured, they have access to a world class health system whenever and\u00a0wherever they need it,\u201d Minister Hunt said.\u00a0\u201cAs restrictions are easing around Australia, particularly in areas which have experienced\u00a0outbreaks of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in 2021, many hospitals are returning their focus\u00a0on the jobs they do so well, emergency care, cancer care, elective surgery and all the critical\u00a0services which have been less of a priority during the pandemic.\u201d
\nThe 2019\u201320 minimum hospital funding guarantee delivered a $532 million increase to the\u00a0states\u2019 2019\u201320 National Health Reform Agreement entitlements.
\nRegional Health Minister, Dr David Gillespie said the Government will facilitate the\u00a0migration of health practitioners with confirmed employment in the state and territory health\u00a0system, including in regional areas, through above-cap places on commercial flights to boost\u00a0the health workforce.
\n\u201cThe Government is investing a further $8 million to extend support to AUSMAT, for its\u00a0domestic deployment capacity to support remote and vulnerable communities facing future\u00a0COVID-19 outbreaks,\u201d Dr Gillespie said.
\n\u201cAUSMAT\u2019s deployment to western and far western New South Wales earlier this year\u00a0improved access to health care and vaccines for local communities during outbreaks.\u201d
\nTo support senior Australians move from hospital into their homes or residential aged care\u00a0more quickly, the Government is providing $16.6 million funding for an extra 357\u00a0temporary\u00a0Transition Care Programme places.
\nMinister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck said, \u201cThe\u00a0additional capacity will help an additional 1,000 senior Australians to access transition care\u00a0between now and 30 June 2022.\u201d
\n\u201cThe Transition Care Programme provides up to 12 weeks of short-term post-hospital\u00a0restorative care for senior Australians, providing services such as allied health and nursing\u00a0support to enable people to return to their own homes or an aged care home, or a mix of both,\u00a0rather than having to remain in hospital,\u201d Minister Colbeck said.
\nSpecifically, the Northern Territory will also receive 10 new permanent Transition Care\u00a0places with an annual investment of more than $780,000 from the Australian Government, to\u00a0support more than 40 additional senior Territorians each year.
\nThese announcements build on the significant funding of more than $180 million already\u00a0announced to support the primary care health sector that includes:<\/p>\n
Combined, these measures further support the continued implementation of the National Plan and deliver on the Government\u2019s commitment to a timely and safe re-opening of Australia.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Australian Government is supporting the states and territories to increase the capacity of\u00a0the health system, as the country enters the next phase of the National Plan to re-open and live\u00a0with COVID-19. In total, the Government has committed more than $32 billion in additional health expenditure\u00a0in response to COVID-19. To further support the states and … Continue reading “Growing and supporting Australia\u2019s health system and aged care capacity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}