The Victorian government's health spending spree is not making workers' jobs any easier, the state's peak body for doctors says.
In its Victorian election statement ahead of the November 26 poll, the state branch of the Australian Medical Association has painted a bleak picture of the health system following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The document has been sent to parties and warns the Labor government's May budget, billed as a $12 billion pandemic repair plan, is not improving the critical situation healthcare workers face on the ground.
"This crisis has built up over decades, across multiple administrations, due in no small part, to now past lack of sophisticated, coordinated, long-term planning failing to recognise increasing demand and capacity constraints as systems stretched to cope," AMA Victoria President Dr Roderick McRae wrote.
The doctors' union is pushing for a new division within the Victorian health department to improve interaction between hospitals and general practitioners.
"Today, the plight of general practice, indeed its business viability, remains dire," Dr McRae said.
"General practice shoulders over 90 per cent of the healthcare burden in Victoria yet receives the least attention from the state government."
A new hospital for Albury-Wodonga on the NSW-Victorian border was raised, with AMA members in the region reporting the existing hospital had passed its use-by date.
The coalition has pledged $300 million to rebuild the hospital if it wins government, a commitment Labor is yet to match as it awaits the finalisation of a masterplan and funding agreement.
The AMA also called for the next government to protect GPs from any additional payroll tax and expressed profound concern on the trajectory of mental health reforms after the state's royal commission.
In Geelong on Friday to spruik Labor's 2018 election pledge for a new women's and children's hospital in Barwon, Premier Daniel Andrews dismissed the AMA's overall assessment.
"Our government has invested $150 billion in our health system since we came to office," he said.
"I'm not accepting of that conclusion and the facts tell a very different story."
However, a Victorian government spokesperson confirmed it was already creating a new specialised "chief GP adviser" position to embed more knowledge of the area in the health department.
The appointment process is expected to start in coming weeks.
Meanwhile, affordable housing has been thrust back into the election spotlight as rents explode across the state.
Rents in Melbourne rose 3.5 per cent in the September quarter, and 10 per cent year-on-year in the city's highest annual growth on record, according to PropTrack.
Prices are marginally cheaper for regional Victorian renters at $400 a week across all dwellings, but have soared by 8.1 per cent over the past year.
In the wake of the new data, a renters' rights forum was hosted by the Greens on Thursday evening in the Victorian state seat of Richmond in Melbourne's inner east.
The Greens have ambitions to prise the seat away from Labor, with long-serving MP Richard Wynne retiring after the November 26 poll.
Labor has preselected former staffer Lauren O'Dwyer as his replacement to run against former Yarra City Council mayor Gabrielle de Vietri, who hosted the forum alongside federal MP Max Chandler-Mather.
