Werribee Mercy Hospital won’t know if its budget will be cut by the federal government until May, despite Labor Party claims that health funding has been slashed.
The ALP has accused the government of planning to cut funding to Victorian hospitals by $277 million.
Lalor’s Labor MP, Joanne Ryan, said Mercy Health would lose $8.3 million.
But a hospital spokeswoman said it wouldn’t know until the federal budget on May 13.
Health Minister Peter Dutton said the revised budgets being used by Labor were based on the previous government’s funding agreement with the states and territories, and they were only estimates.
He said that under the agreement, annual funding was based on factors including hospital activity and population growth, meaning funding levels varied from year to year.
“Labor cut funding to public hospitals by $1.5 billion in the 2012-13 mid-year economic and fiscal outlook based on its agreement with the states,’’ Mr Dutton said.
‘‘This created significant difficulties for states, coming as it did mid-financial year and by withdrawing money that states had already factored into their budgets.
“The figures, the so-called ‘funding cuts’ they are trying to use in that scare campaign, are projections based on Labor’s own formula.”
