State health ministers from across Australia say they are facing the same wave of ill health arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Ministers have crossed the political divide to make a joint call for the Federal Government to increase funding to public hospitals and fix the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). They also want improved aged care systems. 

When health ministers from the five mainland states met with federal Health Minister Greg Hunt in Melbourne last month, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says the group had a “lightbulb moment”; realising crises in their own states were mirrored across the country.

“They all said they were being completely overrun,” says West Australian Health Minister Roger Cook. 

“We’re quite frankly being smashed.”

The ministers believe the likely driver is the impact of delayed or deferred care, which was put aside during COVID-19 lockdowns.

They all said that hundreds of beds in each of their states were being occupied by patients who no longer needed hospital care, but were forced to stay due to NDIS and aged care assessment delays. These delays are the federal government’s domain, and appear to be a central factor in overcrowding.

“People are dying in the backs of ambulances. That is happening,” says Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid.

“Record ambulance ramping is becoming normal. It’s ludicrous in this rich country we have, that when you’re sick enough to get an ambulance, you get there and you sit in an ambulance for hours.

“Something has happened post-COVID that has made it a whole lot worse … There is an emergency need for action.”

Grattan Institute health economist Stephen Duckett says the federal government must pay attention. 

“These are Commonwealth responsibilities not being met properly. The NDIS has been very slow to accept people – they’re waiting weeks and weeks … and caps on aged care provision mean people can’t get home care,” Dr Duckett says.

“There are inefficiencies and incompetence contributing to problems.”

The government says a $17.7 billion aged care investment announced in last week’s budget will speed up assessments and create 80,000 home care packages.

But this may not be enough to appease the state health ministers, who say they are facing some of the most intense pressures they have ever seen in their political careers.

They say attention should also be paid to the increasing level of ill-health and sickness among children, and healthcare staff exhaustion.