Chief Minister Gallagher has said the Commonwealth Budget contains huge cuts in funding to the ACT’s health system.

“The Abbott Government has unilaterally walked away from key commitments contained in the current National Health Reform Agreement which was signed in good faith in 2011 and included commitments to funding guarantees, indexation and payment for interstate patients treated in our hospitals,” Katy said.

“Whilst we seek to confirm our understanding of these cuts with the Federal Treasury it appears, on the information available, that the Commonwealth Government will reduce expected payments to the ACT next year by $47m.”

The total value of the cuts is expected to reach $240 million and the doom and gloom doesn’t end there.

“These cuts also come as the broader ACT health system has been thrown into turmoil with the $7 co-payment for visits to a GP, as well as an increase to co-payments for medicines and other tests as well as our chief primary health care organisation, the ACT Medicare Local facing an extremely uncertain future with no guarantee of ongoing funding,” Katy said.