The southern state’s 76 hospital services will be consolidated into 11 under the umbrella of a new agency – Hospitals Victoria.
In a major backflip the Victorian government will scrap its 76-strong hospital services networks, and instead shift to a network of 11 Local Health Services – five in the regions and six in Melbourne.
In addition, the state will set up a new agency – Hospitals Victoria – which will help hospitals manage budgets and shift to digital technology. The agency will work with hospitals to identify back-office functions that can be consolidated and streamlined.
Hospitals Victoria and the Department will work with health services to deliver a connected and standardised electronic record management system for Victoria’s hospitals.
Current Northern Health chief executive Siva Sivarajah will lead the new agency.
The Allan government is also throwing another $1.5 billion into the mix in a bid to ease budget constraints flagged earlier this year, and roundly criticised by hospital administrators across the state.
All this comes on the back of the release of the government’s 179-page Health Services Plan, published today.
“I want to be very clear this morning,” Premier Jacinta Allan told the media.
“We will not be forcing hospitals to amalgamate. I’m not convinced that that’s in the best interest of patient care.”
Ms Allan said her government accepted or accepted in principle all but one of the Health Service Plan’s 27 recommendations, including the establishment of the new health networks.
Metropolitan Melbourne will be split into six regions – West Metro, Parkville, North Metro, East Metro, South Metro and Bayside. There will be five regional networks – Barwon South West, the Grampians, Loddon Mallee, Hume and Gippsland.
“All individual health services will become part of a network, to improve the care that can be provided locally and strengthen workforce support,” the report’s executive summary states.
“There must be continuing local leadership within each network, informed by local community voices. In recognition of the importance health services have to communities, we recommend they all retain their individual identities and brands.”
The report authors said that that Victoria’s existing hospital structure was “no longer fit for purpose” and the networks were needed for a more “equitable, consistent” system for patients, the health workforce and local communities.
There will be a review three years after the networks are established, and an assessment of outcomes five years into the implementation.
“We believe the Health Services Plan, enabled through the consolidation of health services into Local Health Service Networks, will shape a system that better meets the needs of Victorians now and into the next decade,” the report’s authors said.
“The system will need to continue to learn and adapt to meet the fast-changing healthcare needs of Victorian communities as they age and grow.”
Ms Allan did not say where exactly the $1.5 billion spend would be drawn from.
“This funding that is what hospitals have told us that they need, will be budgeted for in the usual budget way,” she said.
“(The) information will be provided as part of the mid-year budget update.”
She also promised there would be “no frontline service reductions” or frontline job losses.
According to the Herald Sun, opposition leader John Pesutto called the backflip “a humiliating backdown”.
“These funding cuts were never about efficiencies or better services, but mopping up the real-world consequence of a decade of financial mismanagement and record debt under Labor,” he was quoted as saying.
“The Allan Labor government is dysfunctional and is lurching from one crisis to another. A future Liberals and Nationals government will better manage Victoria’s finances so we can afford to invest in critical services including health.
“(The government) has spent months and months causing distress to health services and communities right across Victoria, threatening amalgamation, demanding savage and brutal cuts to the delivery of health services for ill and sick Victorians,” he said.
“… And when the pressure got too much … it does an about face with no details.”