The ACT chief minister has called on Dominic Perrottet, who is likely to become the next NSW premier, to lead a state push for an injection of federal funds to hospitals under strain due to Covid-19.
Andrew Barr said on Monday he still believes the door is open for an agreement, despite prime minister Scott Morrison’s description of the push as a “shakedown”.
Barr said on Monday those comments were not “particularly helpful”. He also revealed that at last week’s national cabinet meeting the federal health secretary, Brendan Murphy, had conceded hospital beds were taken up by elderly and disabled patients usually cared for by the commonwealth.
The federal government has so-far agreed to split Covid-related health costs but has not agreed to lift restrictions on growth in other hospital costs.
Last Thursday all state and territory health ministers wrote to their federal counterpart, Greg Hunt, demanding the Morrison government provide an immediate funding boost to help them manage the “unrelenting strain” on health and hospital systems because of the pandemic.
The states are concerned that regular funding for all treatments has not kept up with increased costs “due to additional infection control procedures, PCR testing, maintenance of bed capacity during fluctuating demand, and capacity to respond to surges in Covid-19 cases”.
They also called for certainty of funding, asking that the existing 50-50 cost sharing of Covid health costs between the commonwealth and the states and territories be extended “until at least the end of 30 June 2023”.
On Friday, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, linked the issue to reopening her state’s border – earning a rebuke from Morrison that the pandemic should not be used “as an excuse for shake-down politics”.
But Barr said it was “simply about what we will need to do across all levels of government for our health system to manage what is, I hope, a once in a lifetime experience.”
He also noted the issue of “bed-blocking”, in which patients remain in hospital when they should be in aged care or a National Disability Insurance Scheme placement – both “areas where the commonwealth has regulatory responsibility”.
Barr said both levels of government had worked “relatively well” on mental health packages, which states and territories want to continue on a 50-50 cost-sharing split for 12 months.
In relation tosharing Covid expenses, Barr said it was a “sound principle” that should continue.
Barr also called for a cap limiting growth in hospital costs to 6.5% to be lifted temporarily. “Clearly a pandemic is going to lead to an increase in activity across the hospital system of more than 6.5%,” he said.
Barr noted Morrison’s comments, but said they did not appear to rule out a 50-50 funding split for regular funding.
“In terms of emissaries to the prime minister – I think that the NSW premier-elect is to be Mr Perrottet, [he] will certainly need to lead the engagement with the commonwealth on this specific issue, as NSW is the biggest state. NSW would clearly have the most to gain from a successful negotiation.”
The Victorian deputy premier, James Merlino, told reporters in Melbourne although he had not heard Morrison’s “shakedown” comment he “would have thought that for all Victorians and Australians, 50-50 funding sounds about right”.
“[It] sounds fair … given that both federal and state and territory governments have responsibility for our health system and hospitals, that would be something that should happen.”
Hunt said the commonwealth “already provides 50-50 funding for additional Covid expenditure in hospitals”, totalling $6.3bn so far. “That continues to be the case and is ongoing,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
Labor has signalled its willingness to attack the Morrison government over the issue, with frontbencher Ed Husic describing Liberal governments as “not good for our health”.
The Liberal MP Fiona Martin noted the funding increases and told Guardian Australia that “there is no barrier to any state or territory matching or exceeding the commonwealth investment in their own hospital systems”.
“In saying that, I think the government should always be open to considering emergency funding in times of crisis as has been demonstrated with recent initiatives during Covid-19,” she said.
On Monday Hunt also announced Australia had purchased an extra 15,000 doses of sotrovimab, an intravenous antibody treatment shown to reduce hospitalisation or death by 79% in adults with mild to moderate Covid-19.
Experts estimate that eight to 15% of adults with Covid-19 will be recommended for treatment with sotrovimab, although it must be given within five days of developing symptoms.
Australia is also in advanced negotiations with pharmacy companies for an antiviral pill, which Hunt described as a “much easier means of” delivering antibody treatments than intravenously.
