Victorian hospital patients could be worse off if state health funding doesn't keep pace with skyrocketing inflation in the next four years, a peak body warns.
The Victorian Healthcare Association, the state's peak body for public health services, said rising inflation had effectively cut hospital funding during record-breaking demand.
The Reserve Bank of Australia tips annual inflation to hit 6.25 per cent by June 2023 before easing to three per cent by the end of 2024.
Health-related costs grew by 2.4 per cent in the 12 months to June this year, less than the overall figure of 6.1 per cent.
Spiking cost of living pressures had a knock-on effect on hospitals and community health services, VHA deputy chief executive Juan Paolo Legaspi said.
"When health budgets don't match or exceed inflation, public health services have to limit how many health workers they can recruit and how many services they can deliver," he said on Wednesday.
"All of this affects how many patients they can treat and how quickly they can provide treatment."
Victoria's latest budget shows overall health spending fell from $27.05 billion in 2021/22 to $25.02 billion in 2022/23.
The Victorian government attributed the $2 billion decrease to the roll back of emergency COVID-19 pandemic funding and spruiked the budget as a $12 billion pandemic repair plan.
"This year's budget has invested to meet the cost of inflation and we are prepared to make the necessary adjustments to reflect future changes in the economy," a government spokesperson said.
"We need a fit-for-purpose funding model and cost-sharing arrangement between the Commonwealth and states."
The VHA has launched a raft of policies to address the crisis as part of a November state election wishlist. It wants the major parties to push Canberra to extend its public hospital equal-funding deal beyond the pandemic.
Other proposals are to expand home care and community health services to reduce hospital admissions and increase health infrastructure funds.
In the latest example of the state's ailing health system, a Melbourne woman was forced to drive to Adelaide last week for a brain tumour scan due to a scarcity of working MRIs in the city.
Victorian minister Natalie Hutchins said equipment was occasionally unavailable as it needed to be serviced.
"I don't know the details of this case in particular but I do know, from my experience in the health system, that sometimes you've just got to roll with the punches," she told reporters.
Ms Hutchins' late husband, former Labor senator Steve Hutchins, underwent cancer treatment before his death in 2017 at age 61.
The Victorian opposition has called on Premier Daniel Andrews to apologise for his minister's "uncaring and shocking remarks".
