LGH and RHH left out of big budget infrastructure spend

In a budget that was heavily geared towards the cost of living and infrastructure, AMA Tasmanian president Dr Helen McArdle said it was disappointing neither the Launceston General Hospital nor the Royal Hobart Hospital received federal funding.

"In the infrastructure spend, it would have been nice to see some dedicated infrastructure spending on health rather than just roads, she said.

"We know that we need to continue with the RHH master plan and the LGH master plan, and there didn't seem to be any dedicated funding there, so that's a bit disappointing."

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With the LGH master plan to be completed over the next 10 years, Dr McArdle said federal funds would help speed up the process, delivering the services Tasmanians needed sooner.

In recent weeks, the AMA has pressured the federal government to invest more in the country's public hospital system asking the commonwealth to increase its share of hospital funding and remove the cap on growth - neither of which were addressed in the budget.

"We know that all the states are suffering, it's not just Tasmania, so we wanted to achieve a 50-50 split, and then for the states with the 5 per cent that they would save, they would have been able to invest that into innovation and other ways to improve their health system," she said.

"We were also advocating for a removal of the 6.5 per cent cap, but neither of those things have come out in this budget.

"All we can hope is that it will come out as part of the election campaign, but it would have been nice to see it in the budget."

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AMA national president Dr Omar Khorshid said Tuesday's announcement of a $7.3 billion increase in Medicare funding and a $9.8 billion increase in hospital funding did not represent expanded health spending, and would not address the issue of bed block or surgery waiting lists.

"The Medicare and hospital funding in Tuesday's budget amounts to little more than usual recurrent spending and planned growth, not the new injection of funds our health system desperately needs," he said.

"While the health portfolio has been spared funding cuts, the government's focus on cost of living has overlooked quality of life, particularly for the thousands of Australians languishing on hospital waiting lists."

Dr Khorshid echoed Dr McArdle's calls for voters to make healthcare a consideration in this year's federal election. "The next government will need to act. The major parties are on notice we will be pushing this case all the way to polling day," he said.

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