BOWMAN MP Andrew Laming has continued his attack on state government funding of Redland Hospital, saying that the federal government was bailing out the hospital, despite being the minor partner.
He said Labor refused to separate Redland Hospital figures from Metro South.
Mr Laming repeated his claim that Metro South had lost about $40 million of state hospital funding this year.
“Federally, we increased activity funding (it’s a formula calculation) by $83 million, to nearly $670 million in 2017-18” he said.
“The federal government … is basically bailing our local hospital out.”
”...I’ve never known hospital funding to go backwards.”
Health Minister Steven Miles said Mr Laming was trying to mislead and the government had increased funding to Metro South Hospital and Health Service, investing a record $2.408 billion in 2018-19.
“That’s an almost $93 million increase on the previous financial year,” he said.
“We have provided more money. It is simply not true to say the state has provided less.
“Funding from the Queensland government has increased year-on-year since we came to government in 2015.”
He said the so-called funding-cut the federal government was claiming was inaccurate and misleading.
“Health Minister Greg Hunt and Mr Laming are just playing politics, trying to distract from the fact the Morrison government is ripping $156 million from Queensland hospitals,” he said.
“That’s a $23.8 million cut from Metro South hospitals, including $1 million from Redlands Hospital.”
Mr Laming said Mr Miles had not separated Redland hospital figures from Metro South.
Bowman Labor candidate Tom Baster declined to respond to Redland City Bulletin questions but later posted information on the issue on Facebook.
He said Mr Laming’s figures did not compare like for like and it was simply not true to claim that there had been a reduction in spending.
He said Mr Laming ignored that ventilation services figures were shifted in accounting and ignored that federal funding figures were inflated by late payments.
Mr Laming said Labor should say exactly how much ventilation services reduced apparent funding and how much late payments increased federal funding.