After months of speculation the Victorian state government has outlined sweeping changes to the state's healthcare system which has been described as "no longer fit for purpose". The new health services plan will group Victoria’s hospitals together by region so they can collaborate more closely and share back-office operations.
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00:00At a hospital visit in Melbourne this morning, the Premier was keen to make an emphatic point.
00:07We will not be forcing hospitals to amalgamate.
00:10And I'm not convinced that forcing hospitals to amalgamate is in the best interest of patient
00:14care.
00:15Instead, the Premier walked through a plan to improve Victoria's struggling health system,
00:20beginning with an extra $1.5 billion.
00:23We know there's still a range of cost containment measures that are within the plan going forward,
00:28so services are still going to have to make some difficult decisions.
00:31Those decisions follow months of uncertainty and rallies against rumoured hospital mergers.
00:38The government has said, look, we have heard this and we recognise there are still benefits
00:43and there are benefits in getting people to work together to amalgamate the back offices
00:48and so on.
00:49The new health services plan, commissioned by the health department, has recommended
00:52Victoria's 76 separate health services be grouped into networks to share resources.
00:59We're going to get to maintain our local board, maintain our local branding, which I think
01:02is a very positive thing.
01:04It's not ruling out amalgamations into the future.
01:08This will be amalgamations by stealth.
01:10The new plan recommends Melbourne's hospitals are grouped into these six local networks
01:15and another five networks would bring together regional hospitals.
01:18The review described the current state of the sector as under strain, not fit for purpose
01:23and offering inconsistent access to safe care.
01:26The Premier has accepted 26 of its 27 recommendations.
01:30Accepting these recommendations will make our health system, our hospital system, stronger.
01:36Merging hope with high expectations.