NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal, announced a $1.3bn increase bringing the total health spend to over $16bn. A large portion of the money announced will be spent on ongoing upgrades and expansions at Liverpool and Nepean hospitals and the construction of the new Royal North Shore hospital. The spending allocation represents an 8.6% rise in funding by the NSW government, but falls below the 9.6% increase AMA councillor Associate Professor Brian Owler was reported to say was needed to meet the health systems rising costs.
In Queensland, health spending has nearly doubled over the last five years with last weeks budget announcement pushing health expenditure to $10.6bn in 2010-11.
