This major investment to build a better health system will ensure we meet the growing needs of our community by:
- relieving pressure on our emergency departments
- investing in our frontline health workers
- delivering the hospital infrastructure our communities deserve
- supporting primary health care through GP practices
- improving access to care for families.
Relieving pressure on our emergency departments
The 2024-25 NSW Budget will invest around half a billion dollars to alleviate pressure on our busy emergency departments, including:
- $171.4 million to establish a ‘Single Front Door’ – a single point of advice, assessment, triage and referral for people in NSW with urgent non-life threatening conditions, backed with the introduction of three additional virtual care services and helping 180,000 people avoid a trip to the ED
- $100.0 million to back in urgent care services, a key instrument of the health system that will provide a pathway to care outside of hospitals for an estimated 114,000 patients
- $70.1 million to expand emergency department short stay units to improve patient flow and reduce ED wait times by nearly 80,000 hours
- $15.1 million for an Ambulance Matrix that enables paramedics to transport patients to emergency departments with greater capacity and reduces wait times by providing real time hospital data
- $31.4 million to increase Hospital in the Home across the State allowing over 3,500 additional patients each year to be cared for in their home rather than a hospital bed
- $53.9 million to improve patient flow and support discharge planning by identifying patients early on that are suitable to be discharged home with the appropriate supports in place.
Supporting primary healthcare through GPs
The Minns Labor Government will invest an estimated $188.8 million as part of the Bulk-Billing Support Initiative to ensure that primary health care services remain accessible to families and households.
This will protect the cost of seeing a GP for families and households, reduce the strain on emergency departments and save hundreds of clinics from closure.
Investing in our frontline health workers
When we boost our health workers, we improve patient outcomes. The 2024-25 NSW Budget will deliver more frontline health workers to communities that need them most, including:
- $274.7 million to boost staffing at newly built and upgraded hospitals across the state as part of the Essential Health Services Fund
- This will enable an additional 250 healthcare workers across the state including at Prince of Wales Hospital, Tweed Hospital, Bowral, Sutherland, Wentworth, Cowra, Cooma, Glen Innes, and Griffith
- $200.1 million to deliver accommodation to house health workers in regional NSW to better enable us to recruit and retain essential health workers right across the state.
This investment will further our initiatives to build an engaged, capable and supported workforce through:
- beginning to implement safe staffing levels
- making 1,112 temporary nurses permanent
- delivering an extra 500 regional paramedics
- abolishing the wages cap and delivering the highest wage increases for health workers in over a decade
- introducing health worker study subsidies
- doubling rural health incentives
- boosting doctors in our regional GP surgeries as well as hospitals through the single employer model.
Delivering the hospital infrastructure our communities deserve
The 2024-25 NSW Budget will boost investment in hospital infrastructure with $3.4 billion in 2024-25 to upgrade hospitals and health facilities across the State. Additional funding under the NSW Government’s Building Better Health initiative will ensure the delivery of upgraded hospitals and health facilities in communities that need it most, including:
- $395.3 million of additional funding to deliver ongoing hospital redevelopments at Eurobodalla, Ryde, Temora, Liverpool, Integrated Mental Health Complex at Westmead, Moree, Nepean, Cessnock and Shellharbour Hospital
- An investment of $265.0 million in a critical Port Macquarie Hospital upgrade
- Continued investment in the Lower Mid North Coast (Manning and Forster-Tuncurry).
In addition, further investment in the 2024-25 NSW Budget will deliver:
- $250.0 million for a Critical Asset Maintenance Program ensuring much-needed maintenance across hospitals and health facilities state-wide
- Funding for the Single Digital Patient Record, a next generation system which will consolidate and make it easier for clinicians to access patient information.
In 2024-25 this major health infrastructure investment includes over half a billion in Western Sydney and around one billion dollars in rural and regional NSW.
Improving access to care for families
The 2024-25 NSW Budget will invest $130.9 million to improve access to health care services that families need through our Family Start Package, including:
- $52.2 million to help low and middle income families undergoing fertility treatment by extending the fertility treatment rebate
- $40.0 million to enhance essential services for vulnerable children with specific investments in rural and regional allied health, juvenile arthritis and Karitane and Tresillian services.
A plan to build a better health system for NSW
The Minns Labor Government has a plan to deliver better healthcare in NSW, improving access to care; boosting staff; delivering the infrastructure our communities need; and sustaining health families.
