However,in reality,the prediction was wrong. Actual spending for 2021-22 turned out to be a lot higher,at $27.06 billion. This year’s budget set aside $25.02 billion,which is 7.5 per cent less than last financial year.

Although Thomas said health spending had risen by 7 per cent,that represents the difference between this year’s budget prediction and the amount it originally expected to spend in last year’s budget.

Thomas’ denial that soaring inflation would hurt funding,came after Education Minister Natalie Hutchins apologised for comments she made at a press conference after a Melbourne woman was forced to make a round trip to Adelaide for an urgent medical procedure.

As first reported in theHerald Sun, mother of two Kylie Hennessy,who needed the scan ahead of surgery on a brain tumour,travelled to Adelaide last week after being told she faced a months-long wait for a “functional MRI” scan in Melbourne.

Asked about Hennessy’s plight,Hutchins said she did not know the details of the case,but from her own personal experience watching her late husband seek his own cancer treatment that “sometimes you just got to roll with the punches of what’s going on”.

Hutchins has since apologised ina series of tweets. She said the comment was a reflection of her own personal experience of nursing her late husband through cancer and treatment.

“Having been through the pain and uncertainty of fighting cancer with my late husband,Steve,I know how distressing and anxious this time is for the Hennessy family,” she tweeted. “I understand this may have caused some distress,and I am sorry that this has happened.”

Debate about the state of Victoria’s health system continues while the coroner attempts to determine whether any of the 33 Victorians who died while waiting for ambulances could have survived if their triple-zero call was answered in time. The deaths were revealed earlier this month in a long-awaited report into problems at the state’s triple-zero call centre between December 2020 and May 2022.

A government spokesperson said inflation was lower in the healthcare sector than across the broader economy and highlighted the additional funding the government has provided through the $12 billion pandemic support package for the health system.

Meanwhile,the Victorian Greens have proposed an investment of $1.3 billion in hospital beds to be spent over the next eight years in an attempt to considerably increase the state’s supply of nursing home,rehabilitation,and geriatric care beds targeting the problem known as ‘bed block’ or ‘exit block’,which fuels ambulance ramping.

Victorian Greens health spokesman Dr Tim Read,who is a trained doctor and medical researcher,said the party was seeking expert costing on beds and staffing.

“One of the key things about these beds is that they are actually cheaper to provide than acute care hospital beds,” he said.

Robson said while the Greens’ proposal had “strong merits” the issue was “so much more complex than getting more beds.”

“We need to start saying it’s not a luxury to have residential aged care properly staffed,it’s not a luxury to have an NDIS funded bed available for something,” he said. “It’s just critical.”

Earlier this week,a government spokeswoman said Victoria had invested $12 billion as part of a pandemic repair plan but acknowledged “rising inflation is having an impact on public services”.

“This year’s budget has invested to meet the cost of inflation,and we are prepared to make the necessary adjustments to reflect future changes in the economy,” she said. “We need a fit-for-purpose funding model and cost-sharing arrangement between the Commonwealth and states.”

A spokeswoman for federal health minister Mark Butler said the Albanese Government was working with the states to take pressure off our public hospitals with almost $1 billion of investment in general practice and strengthening Medicare.

“Our Government is working collaboratively with the states and territories and we’ll continue to do this through our weekly Health Ministers meetings and National Cabinet,” he said.

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