HSU members secured a historic Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding this year – the first step toward preserving our universal healthcare system for our future generations.

A whopping $33 billion goes into health – a third of the NSW budget – but it’s not going to the right places. Instead, our hospitals and public healthcare facilities are under-resourced, under-staffed, and kept running by over-worked HSU members.

So, where’s the funding going?

HSU members fought hard, demanding a Special Commission to uncover funding arrangements and ensure we preserve our universal healthcare system for future generations.

This comprehensive review will finally examine the existing governance and accountability structure of NSW Health, after decades of inaction by successive state governments.

Long overdue

It’s been almost 100 years since there was a meaningful review of funding arrangements in health – the last one was in 1929.

Almost all NSW Health workers have war stories from their jobs, tales of a health service that’s under-resourced and under-funded.

Members knew a review was urgently needed, knowing full well the money was not getting to where it was needed.

It was only through HSU member feedback raising those issues and members keeping the pressure on that the Commission was announced.

That feedback from membership formed the basis of the HSU’s recent submission, calling for a health system that works for all – not just the wealthy.

Green light

In August, the NSW government gave the HSU-initiated inquiry the go-ahead and in November, thousands of HSU members got the chance to share their stories about wastage, under-resourcing, and mismanagement in NSW Health as part of the HSU’s submission to the inquiry.

A key recommendation in the submission was the call to ‘undertake a national review of the pay and conditions in the healthcare workforce’.

Because we can’t have a world class healthcare system without health workers.

Time for action

The Special Commission has the authority to subpoena documents and scrutinise expenditure to root out where the issues are. Hearings into NSW Health spending have already begun!

This is about ensuring NSW Health is a system that supports workers and patients alike and upholds the principles of universal healthcare for future generations. Congratulations to members for demanding answers!