The NSW Government has today signed a National Health agreement with the Commonwealth which will give funding certainty for NSW health services for the next seven years.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian signed the agreement with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in COAG on Friday which commits the Commonwealth to providing 45 per cent of NSW’s growth health funding, capped at an annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent, between 2020/21 to 2024/25.
Had this agreement not been reached today, the Commonwealth’s health growth funding cap for NSW would have dropped to 4.2 per cent from July 2020.
“NSW now has funding certainty for the next seven years, which gives us the foundation to continue to grow the NSW health system as one of the most effective and efficient health systems in the world,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“As I have said previously, health costs in NSW are rising. We do have demand pressures on our hospital system. But as our Government has shown under these arrangements, we are able to meet those demand pressures while delivering world class health services.
“Under this agreement, NSW has an assurance from the Commonwealth that our State will be able to take advantage of any other subsequent agreements if they are better than the one we have signed today.”
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said: “This agreement provides much needed funding certainty to our hospitals.
“In addition to this agreement, NSW will also receive the lion share of the $50 million the Commonwealth is providing under its newly announced Health Innovation Fund which we can use towards some of our priorities such as combatting childhood obesity.
“We would not have received this had we not signed up today.”
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said: “We are committed to delivering high quality and affordable healthcare to the people and families of NSW and this agreement secures our ability to continue delivering record health investments where it matters most.”
COAG on Friday also supported Ms Berejiklian’s push to reform Federal-State relations by agreeing to progress the Premier’s model of Dynamic Federalism
“Under the current model, bureaucrats waste valuable resources and countless hours negotiating duplicative agreements instead of focusing on outcomes for the community,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“Currently, there are around 70 agreements covering everything from pest control, school fences to more substantive matters such as health funding.
“I would like to see these 70 agreements reduced down to a maximum of 10.”
COAG today agreed to apply this new approach to Health as a first step, which would result in at least 21 existing Health agreements consolidated to one National Health Agreement with an overarching goal of improving health outcomes.