Renewed call for $2B regional hospitals fund

Indi Independent federal MP, Helen Haines, has called on the Commonwealth to establish a $2 billion Building Regional and Rural Hospitals Fund, which she said could help give hospitals like Bright District Hospital "a fair go to secure the funding they need for safe, modern healthcare - now and into the future". Dr Haines introduced her motion to establish the fund into Parliament on Monday, and is to meet with Health Minister Mark Butler this week to discuss her plan to "provide transparent, competitive, needs-based funding for regional hospitals". She said rural Australians are being left behind while successive governments have politicised hospital funding, with both major parties "engaged in pork-barrelling hospital funding promises" during the last election. “The Commonwealth has a clear role in funding hospital infrastructure, but without a transparent, competitive process, rural Australians miss out.” Dr Haines said. She said the National Rural Health Alliance estimates rural Australians received $8.35 billion less in healthcare funding than urban Australians in 2023–24. “Rural Australians are falling through the cracks...hospitals are stretched with inadequate facilities, surgeries are delayed, and communities are paying the price," Dr Haines said. “Funding remains opaque and is too often politically driven, with pork-barrelling and election promises favouring a few hospitals while others miss out. “We need integrity and transparency over the spending of taxpayer money, and this is a program to deliver that. “This fund would give hospitals like Albury Wodonga Health, Bright District Hospital and Mansfield District Hospital, and hospitals like them across regional Australia, a fair go to secure the funding they need for safe, modern healthcare - now and into the future. “Our communities shouldn’t have to fight for the care our city cousins take for granted.”

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