Last week Together members in Cairns and Hervey Bay, joined by their fellow health workers, spoke out about the need for urgent additional investment in our Health system here in Queensland. The message is clear - Health needs urgent care. This is not just about the pandemic, it’s about the increased needs of our community - across acute health care, community and preventive care, mental health care and more. Political leaders are responding to this call in different ways. Premier Palaszczuk has called on the federal government to improve funding for health services - to lift the contributions to deal with the increased need. The Premier said on the weekend hospitals need to have the capacity and that requires additional funding coming from the federal government to support the growth in numbers. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called this shakedown politics and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said I don’t know how many ventilators there are… it's the states' job to run hospitals. What do you think? Health members have called on both levels of government to address the need. I think the Premier is right to make this call for additional funding. Given the health system has to be funded by the federal government who collect our taxes - and given the devastating under funding of aged care and disability support - shouldn’t the federal government step up? We think it’s time. Every state health minister has written to Federal Minister Greg Hunt asking for a review of hospital funding. Do you support the Premier's call for an increase in funding to Queensland’s hospital system from the federal government? Together members in Queensland Health provide world class services every day but there urgently needs to be more resources put in to our system to cope with demand. As one of our delegates recently put it “we cannot slice the pie any differently, there needs to be more pie” - there are more patients, who are sicker, needing urgent care. And together we believe every Queenslander has a right to access health care wherever we live in our great state.
