Date Published: 29 January 2009

Supporting calls for health infrastructure spending

The AMA is supporting calls from State health ministers for the Federal Government to focus on funding health infrastructure as part of a proposed economic stimulus package.

AMA Vice President, Dr Gary Speck, said the clear message to all governments was:

“There is no better investment than health."

Investing in health delivers dividends across the board: in workforce productivity, in strengthening communities and in caring for the most disadvantaged in our society,” Dr Speck said.

A significant boost to funding for public hospitals across Australia is a great investment in our future.

But patients need more than bricks and mortar. There’s little use building new wards and hospitals if you don’t have the medical staff, equipment and ongoing funding to sustain them.

Infrastructure investment is necessary and welcome, but governments must recognise that investing in, and supporting, the hard working doctors and nurses in our public hospital system is just as important.

The investment should also be in training the next generation of health professionals and ensuring they have the modern equipment, resources and funding needed to help sick and injured Australians.”

Dr Speck said matching infrastructure funding with the required recurrent funding would help ensure Australia maintained its world-class health services.

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