A Shorten Labor Government will invest $1 billion on vital upgrades to Australia\u2019s public hospitals \u2013 building new wards with more beds, upgrading emergency departments and theatres, and establishing new palliative care and mental health facilities.
\nOur doctors, nurses and hospital staff do an amazing job, but we know there are hospital facilities across the country that are aging and in dire need of a revamp to ensure patients get the best care possible.
\nAt a time when everything is going up except people\u2019s wages, soaring health care costs under the Liberals are putting more strain on the family budget – and more strain on our public hospitals. Out-of-pocket GP costs have increased by 25%, specialist costs by almost 40% and private health insurance premiums by 30%.
\n1.3 million Australians skip getting basic health care because of cost – and this puts extra pressure on our public hospitals.
\nThat\u2019s why Labor will invest an additional $1 billion upgrading hospitals across the country, with every state and territory to benefit from these targeted investments that will ensure patients can access modern and safe health services, and that doctors and nurses have the tools they need to deliver the best possible care.
\nWe are already partnering with state and territory governments to identify projects that will make a tangible difference to the lives of Australians \u2013 whether they\u2019re giving birth, undergoing essential surgery, waiting for emergency treatment or reaching the end of their lives.
\nLabor\u2019s $1 billion investment will be flexible to meet the needs of individual hospitals \u2013 in some cases, this will mean rebuilding and expanding existing facilities so they can cater for more patients, in other cases it will mean the construction of brand new units to meet the health needs of a community.
\nFrom downtown Sydney to regional WA, from rural Tasmania to Far North Queensland, from inner Melbourne to regional South Australia and the Northern Territory: Labor will ensure more Australians can access essential health services close to home so they don\u2019t need to travel to the next town or city.
\nThis investment blitz is a key part of Labor\u2019s Fair Go Action Plan to improve our public hospitals and strengthen Medicare.
\nWe can afford to spend more on health care because we\u2019ve made the tough decisions to make multinationals pay their fair share and close unfair tax loopholes.
\nThis $1 billion worth of capital investments will come on top of our commitment to restore the core public hospital funding cut by the Liberals.
\nA Shorten Labor Government will always invest more on health and hospital services than the Liberals.
\nThe Liberals have an appalling record on health funding, inflicting cut after cut after cut.
\nThat\u2019s why Australians today are paying more than ever to see the doctor, and why people are languishing longer than ever in emergency departments and on elective surgery waiting lists.
\nAs Treasurer, Scott Morrison cut from health and hospitals in every Budget he delivered.
\nHe cut $715 million from hospitals under the current 2017 to 2020 funding agreement with the states. And now he\u2019s trying to lock in even bigger cuts for the next five years. Only Labor is promising a better deal.
\nSince becoming Prime Minister, Morrison\u2019s sought to cut even more from hospitals and has refused to lift the six-year Medicare rebate freeze.
\nLabor knows there\u2019s nothing more important than your health \u2013 that\u2019s why we will always fight for better health care and why only Labor can be trusted to fix Australia\u2019s hospitals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Shorten Labor Government will invest $1 billion on vital upgrades to Australia\u2019s public hospitals \u2013 building new wards with more beds, upgrading emergency departments and theatres, and establishing new palliative care and mental health facilities. Our doctors, nurses and hospital staff do an amazing job, but we know there are hospital facilities across the … Continue reading “LABOR\u2019S PLAN TO BUILD BETTER HOSPITALS”<\/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-1959","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\/1959","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=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}