Two regional Victorian hospitals had no cash available to pay their bills at the end of last year, but state authorities maintain patient care was not compromised.
The revelations are contained in leaked health data from December after health services suddenly stopped reporting how many days of cash they had in their most recent annual reports.
Corryong and West Wimmera health services each had $0 available cash in December, according to the document leaked to the opposition and provided to this masthead.
Hesse Rural Health had just $500,000 available, marginally less than the $600,000 held by Omeo District Health and $700,000 at Beechworth Health Service.
While health services had more total money available, this included infrastructure funds, for example, which could not go towards wages, invoices and bills.
Previously, health services have reported how many days of cash they had available at the end of each month and the average time it took to pay trade creditors. But these performance measures disappeared from their annual reports in 2024-25.
The change prompted criticism from the Coalition and the Greens.
Hospitals Victoria, established by the government in 2024, said it worked closely with health services to manage their budgets.
“For smaller services in particular, cash on hand can fluctuate due to the normal timing of reporting, payments and funding cycles. These short‑term movements are expected and do not indicate financial risk,” a spokesman said.
“All Victorian health services had the funding they needed at the end of 2025 to meet their financial obligations and maintain high‑quality care.”
Victoria’s public hospitals typically aim to have 14 days of available cash at the end of each calendar month for unexpected costs and to avoid the government having to top up their funding. In late 2020, the government also committed to pay supplier invoices from small businesses – such as cleaning or laundry services at smaller health services – within 10 business days for contracts below $3 million. Some of Melbourne’s largest health services were still failing this.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said Victoria’s health system “remains on financial life support” and said the estimated $15 billion lost through the Big Build, revealed in a report into CFMEU corruption by Geoffrey Watson, came at the detriment of essential services.
“Fifteen billion could fund every single Victorian hospital for the best part of a year, but instead, that money has been lost to organised criminals and bikies all whilst health services suffer,” Wilson said.
“Only a Liberal and Nationals government I lead will stop the waste, clean up the books and sustainably invest in our health system through our essential services guarantee.”
A Victorian government spokeswoman said Labor had delivered record funding for hospitals, including more than $31 billion in health funding this year.
“This massive funding boost is giving every public hospital the certainty to plan for the future and keep delivering the world-class care Victorians rely on.”
The government gave health services a $1.5 billion bailout in 2024, prompting then-treasurer Tim Pallas to insist hospitals keep to their budgets.
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Rachel Eddie is a Victorian state political reporter for The Age. Contact her at rachel.eddie@theage.com.au, rachel.eddie@protonmail.com, or via Signal at @RachelEddie.99Connect via X or email.
