On Tuesday 18 June 2024, Treasurer the Hon Daniel Mookhey MLC delivered the 2024-25 NSW State Budget.

This Budget includes $13.4 billion to upgrade hospitals across the State and building housing for key health workers; $480.7 million to relieve pressure on emergency departments; $274.7 million Essential Health Services Fund to help recruit 250 new healthcare workers to new hospitals across the state; and $130.9 million Family Start Package to improve access to care for families including early intervention programs to boost lifelong maternal and child health.

Investment in hospital infrastructure

$3.4 billion in 2024-25 to upgrade hospitals and health facilities across the State.

The Building Better Hospitals Package commits $265.0 million for a critical upgrade of Port Macquarie Hospital and an additional $395.3 million to deliver ongoing hospital redevelopments at Eurobodalla, Ryde, Temora, Mental Health Complex at Westmead, Liverpool, Moree, Nepean, Cessnock and Shellharbour.

• A further $250.0 millionwill be invested across NSW hospitals as part of the Critical Asset Maintenance Program. Development also continues for the new Single Digital Patient Record system, a next generation system which will consolidate and make it easier for clinicians to access patient information.

Relieving pressure on our emergency departments

The NSW Government’s Emergency Department Relief Package invests $480.7 million to help to avoid an estimated 290,000 visits to emergency departments each year once fully implemented.

• $171.4 million to establish a ‘Single Front Door’ – a single point of advice, assessment, triage and referral for people in NSW with urgent non-life threatening conditions, backed with the introduction of three additional virtual care services and helping 180,000 people avoid a trip to the ED •
• $100.0 million to back in urgent care services, a key instrument of the health system that will provide a pathway to care outside of hospitals for an estimated 114,000 patients •
• $70.1 million to expand emergency department short stay units to improve patient flow and reduce ED wait times by nearly 80,000 hours •
• $15.1 million for an Ambulance Matrix that enables paramedics to transport patients to emergency departments with greater capacity and reduces wait times by providing real time hospital data • $31.4 million to increase Hospital in the Home across the State allowing over 3,500 additional patients each year to be cared for in their home rather than a hospital bed
• $53.9 million to improve patient flow and support discharge planning by identifying patients early on that are suitable to be discharged home with the appropriate supports in place.

 Supporting primary healthcare through GPs

• $188.8 million as part of the Bulk[1]Billing Support Initiative to ensure that primary health care services remain accessible to families and households and to protect the cost of seeing a GP for families and households, reduce the strain on emergency departments

 investing in our frontline health workers

• $274.7 millionEssential Health Services Fund, to help recruit 250 new healthcare workers to new hospitals across the state including at Prince of Wales Hospital, Tweed Hospital, Bowral, Sutherland, Wentworth, Cowra, Cooma, Glen Innes, and Griffith.
• $200.1 million expansion of the NSW Health Key Worker Housing Accommodation program to house health workers in regional NSW to better recruit and retain essential health workers across the state. Early assessment has identified a number of possible future locations such as Lismore, Eurobodalla, Tweed Heads and Lake Cargelligo.
• delivering an extra 500 regional paramedics
• abolishing the wages cap and delivering the highest wage increases for health workers in over a decade.

For full details:

• Media Release: 2024-25-nsw-budget-park-a-plan-to-build-a-better-health-system-for-nsw-communities.pdf
• Budget papers: 2024-25 NSW Budget Papers