Victoria's hospitals came within days of being unable to pay staff or creditors, prompting the health minister to request $422 million be urgently pumped into the system.
Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas wrote to Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas seeking support for "urgent payments" in June 2023, according to a letter obtained by the state's opposition under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Some 22 health services were set to record deficits in the 2022-23 financial year, according to a departmental briefing document also released under the request.
"Without additional funding in June Health Services will be unable to make payroll payments to employees and will have insufficient operating cash to pay creditors," the document, dated June 9, 2023, stated.
"This may have reputational risks for individual Health Services, the public health system and government."
The document showed the department was reviewing its own budget but advice from corporate finance indicated "insufficient funds" to meet the needs of health services.
Melbourne Health, responsible for the Royal Melbourne Hospital, was due to record a deficit of more than $104 million, according to the document.
Austin Health's deficit was due to be more than $50 million, Alfred Health's totalled $48 million and it was $43 million for St Vincent's Health.
Ms Thomas on Wednesday said the cost of delivering healthcare continued to grow after a "number of quite extraordinary years" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We had a range of unexpected costs in our healthcare system as a result of the impact that COVID has had on the price to deliver healthcare," the health minister told reporters in Geelong.
"It's not unusual to seek additional funding through the course of the year, and that's what I did."
In August an extra $1.5 billion was allocated to hospitals for one year, on top of $8.8 billion in the budget, with Premier Jacinta Allan warning health services to tighten their belts to return to pre-COVID spending levels.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto described the situation as dire and said it was unclear "how much worse it got in the following financial year".
"The health minister had to seek urgent injection of funds of nearly half a billion dollars to prop up our public health system, and in particular our public hospitals, that's not good enough," he said.
"It is so dire that health services across the state are unable to pay their bills and to pay the salaries of doctors and nurses."
Meanwhile, the federal government on Wednesday announced it would take over seven existing Priority Primary Care Centres in Melbourne and Bendigo that were previously operated by the state government.
The facilities have become part of the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic program, offering bulk-billed medical care outside standard hours that is touted as a way to take pressure off hospitals.
