Health politics has an imperative impact on Australian health care systems (Shariff 2014).

Reforms in budgets have many negative affects on healthcare delivery, such as budget cuts
(Shariff 2014). Budget cuts disallow new equipment, resources and repairs, which affects
the delivery of safe and effective patient care (Salmond & Echevarria 2017). Australian
hospitals are bridging funding gaps by cutting staff (Worledge 2016) and introducing extra
charges for basic health services (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation 2014).
This will increase the load of patients who have delayed seeking healthcare due to inability
to afford so earlier (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation 2014). Worledge (2016)
reiterates that treating patients costs money, and without money, patients can not be treated
sufficiently. Budget cuts affect healthcare structures by consequently increasing workload,
decreasing job satisfaction, increasing job insecurity, and decreasing quality and quantity
of patient care (Shariff 2014).
 
Budget cuts has negatively affected strategies for the future in healthcare, as from 2014-
2015, the Federal budget cut was over $1.3 billion from preventative health
programs (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation 2019). 90% of Australian deaths
are contributed to a preventable chronic condition or disease, so lack of funding to support
preventative health programs is highly detrimental (Australian Nursing and Midwifery
Federation 2019). 

Hello Nell,

Thank you for your very informative posts on how budgets cuts can negatively impact on the
health care systems. Budget cuts to healthcare system has been a topic of political rage over
the years (Kirby 2014; 'New election ads stick up for health' 2016). The budget cut to public
health funding started with former prime minister Tony Abbott’s first budget in 2014 when
he cut $59 billion set to commence in 2017 ('New election ads stick up for health' 2016).
This budget cuts on healthcare faced tremendous backlash with thousands of Australian
taking to the street to protest (Kirby 2014). Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation
(ANMF) also launched a major campaign “If you don’t care, we can’t care” to draw attention
to the devastating health cuts and its detrimental impacts on patient’s outcome and ability of
nurses to perform their job effectively ('IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT $57 BILLION IN
HEALTH CUTS, WE CAN'T CARE' 2016).

On the contrary, according to (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2018), health
expenditure increased from $113 billion on 2006-07 to $170 billion on 2015-16 at an average
rate of 4.8% each year. Subsequently, health spending was $181 billion in 2016-17 which
was about 10% of gross domestic product (Commonwealth of Australia 2019). However, the
management and distribution of the health care funds should be considered carefully as health
care system is facing various challenges of increased number of ageing population and
chronic diseases, nursing shortages and increased health services demand (Kirby 2014;
Commonwealth of Australia 2019).

References:

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018, Australia’s Health 2018, Canberra, viewed
07 July 2019, <https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/2b17fa00-d3d7-4eb9-8eca-
d85797e7ef68/aihw-aus-221-ch2-summary.pdf.aspx>.

Commonwealth of Australia 2019, The Australian health system2019, viewed 08 July 2019,
<https://www.health.gov.au/about-us/the-australian-health-system>.

'IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT $57 BILLION IN HEALTH CUTS, WE CAN'T CARE',
2016, Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal, vol. 23, no. 10, pp. 18-23, viewed 08 July
2019, < http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
vid=13&sid=13ab8b8d-7f42-4af0-9914-595deca42d10%40pdc-v-sessmgr06>.

Kirby, T 2014, 'Health and science suffer major cuts in Australia's budget', Lancet, vol. 383
North American Edition, no. 9932, pp. 1874-1876, viewed 08 July 2019,
<https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60901-6/fulltext>.

'New election ads stick up for health', 2016, Lamp, vol. 73, no. 4, pp. 18-21, viewed 08 July
2019, <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
vid=11&sid=3f1aa4e6-1971-4f61-a639-54360fdee7c1%40sdc-v-sessmgr01>.