Our Perspective: Urgent Action Required to Reduce Workplace Injuries
The latest revelations about soaring WorkCover premiums across Victoria paint a concerning picture of workplace safety in Australia. While the healthcare sector statistics below highlight the immediate crisis, this trend extends across all industries where workers put their bodies on the line daily. As occupational health specialists, we’re witnessing firsthand how rising workplace injuries are affecting both organisations and their valued employees.
Original Article from The Age – November 20, 2024
Cash-strapped hospitals crunched by soaring workers’ compensation bills
By Annika Smethurst and Broede Carmody
Victoria’s cash-strapped hospitals have been hit with soaring workers’ compensation premiums, with some health services’ bills doubling in a year.
An analysis of more than 70 annual reports shows that WorkCover costs in the last financial year reached more than $250 million – a 51 per cent increase on the previous year’s total of $166 million.
The new Footscray hospital. Operator Western Health has recorded a 79 per cent surge in WorkCover premiums.
It comes as Victorian hospitals – including several of the largest Melbourne facilities – have been going backwards financially, running operating losses and in some cases having less than a day’s money on hand to pay the bills.
Western Health – which manages Sunshine, Footscray, Williamstown and Bacchus Marsh hospitals, and five community health centres – was hit with a 79 per cent WorkCover premium increase to $17 million in 2023-24, up from $9.52 million in the 2022-23 financial year.
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre’s premiums doubled to $2 million year-on-year, while the Royal Women’s Hospital saw its annual premium soar by 117 per cent, forcing it to pay $3.1 million.
Many of the state’s small rural and regional hospitals were also slapped with large increases. WorkCover bills at Portland, Heywood, Inglewood, Casterton and Bendigo hospitals were more than double the previous financial year.
Bendigo Health spent $7.84 million on WorkCover premiums last financial year, up 122 per cent from $3.5 million the year prior. Portland District Health, in the state’s south-west, went from spending just $354,000 on premiums to $750,000.
The increases came as the government scrambled to fix the “fundamentally broken” scheme that compensates the state’s workers and pull it back to a sustainable financial footing. In December, The Age reported that WorkCover premium increases were putting pressure on the state’s health service budgets.
Our Call to Action: Actively reduce rising work cover costs
We believe that using real-time data to proactively handle risks and developing systems that prioritise worker wellbeing are essential investments for every Australian organisation. Through strategic intervention and a commitment to workplace safety, we can reverse this concerning trend and ensure every worker returns home safely to their family
Our occupational health platform supports organisations to develop and manage effective injury prevention strategies and create safer workplaces across all industries.
Contact us to learn how we can help protect your workers and manage your WorkCover premiums through prevention.
