mmg.com.au

Federal Government funding cuts will cost Kyabram and District Health Services $146000 over the remainder of the 2012-13 financial year.

KDHS chief executive Peter Abraham said every public health service in the state would be affected.

‘‘The key message from me is that I don’t expect this to have any significant impact on the services we provide, in that we are not aiming to reduce our services,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ll look at all areas, not just one, and then adapt, operate prudently and just not spend inappropriately.’’

Mr Abraham said KDHS had been projecting a surplus this year but would now have to look carefully at funding requirements for the rest of the year.

‘‘It is a cause of concern for us and we will need to tighten our belts. As for where we’ll be able to save money I can’t say at the moment as we’ll need to have a series of meetings with our department managers.’’

Mr Abraham said the KDHS board had an idea something like this might happen, so spending had been set at sensible level, but he was still disappointed to hear cuts were being made.

The cuts will begin to take effect from Friday, December 7, the day monthly funding is normally transferred from Federal Government to state governments. The figure equates to $21000 less per month in the KDHS budget.

According to figures provided by the Victorian Department of Health, KDHS’s funding budget is $10.818million, with $4.477million coming from Federal Goverment and $6.341million from the Victorian Government.

Victorian Health Minister David Davis has written to local health services throughout the state warning them of the imminent reduction to their budgets.

It is understood the cuts have been made in line with recalculated population figures, however, the figures used are being disputed by state health ministers.

Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said Mr Davis was trying to distract from the Victorian Government’s budget cuts, and overall federal funding for Victorian’s health services was increasing.