MEDI-HOTELS
313. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I have a supplementary question. How
does the minister reconcile the fact that in the last two budgets there have
been $11.5 billion in surpluses, but ambulance ramping has increased to a peak
of over 6 500 hours under this government's watch?
Ms A.
SANDERSON replied:
The supplementary question did not
relate at all to the first question, although the first question was hard to
understand; I will acknowledge that.
Ms L. Mettam: Undelivered
beds.
The SPEAKER: Order, please,
member for Vasse!
Ms A. SANDERSON: Under the
last two budgets, the health spend has gone from $8.6 billion to more than $11 billion.
The Liberal–National government was borrowing to pay the bills. It was
borrowing to pay nurses and borrowing to pay the doctors. If we had continued
down that track, there is no way that we could have managed the pandemic the
way we have—to recruit 1 400 nurses and more than 500 doctors and to
put more than 300 beds online since the last budget, which was only in
September, by the way. By the end of this year, more than 580 beds will be
online.
Ms L. Mettam: But don't
ring 000.
Ms A. SANDERSON: You clearly
do not want to hear the answer. All I can hear is muffled muttering on the
other side.
This government has injected record
investment in our health system at the time it was needed. Our budget in health
has gone up every single year.