NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has been accused of marking his two years in power by slashing almost $5 million from the budgets of western Sydney's busiest hospitals.
Opposition Leader John Robertson pointed to newly released budget documents for the Western Sydney Local Health District showing $2.94 million will be cut from Westmead Hospital.
Another $1.35 million will be trimmed from Blacktown and Mt Druitt hospitals while Auburn Hospital will be down $360,000.
This comes on top of $3 million slashed from the staffing budget at the Westmead and Sydney Children's Hospitals this year, Mr Robertson said.
"We should be investing more to help Western Sydney hospitals keep up with growing demand, not less," he said.
Opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald said it was impossible to slash nearly $5 million from the hospitals without compromising patient care.
"These cuts are forcing medical staff hours to be cut back and wards such as the cardiac unit at Mt Druitt to be closed."
But Mr O'Farrell said Labor should stop getting its information from the unions.
"John Robertson has got to stop listening to the unions and start listening to communities," he told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.
He said an additional $55 million had gone into the Western Sydney Health Region this year.
Back office and regional office jobs were being cut to divert money to the frontline, the premier said.
"We will not apologise for cutting back office and head office jobs to free up dollars to go into our hospitals and our clinics to ensure that there can be more admissions, there can be more emergency treatments, there can be more emergency surgery," he said.
In question time, Health Minister Jillian Skinner said Blacktown-Mt Druitt hospital was receiving a $324 million upgrade.
"I am very proud that at the two-year mark we have a record budget for health, $17.3 billion in recurrent funding," she told parliament.
"An extra $1.1 billion invested in our hospitals to upgrade facilities that were long promised an upgrade by that lot over there, not delivered right across the state.
"And the irony of it! Which is the biggest hospital upgrade? Blacktown! Blacktown! I can't believe it."
She refuted "spurious" arguments about health budget cuts, saying 3000 nurses and 900 additional medical staff had been employed.
Ms Skinner also pointed to an overall budget increase of $20 million for Westmead Hospital, including a $5 million upgrade for its emergency department.
She said waiting times there had been slashed.
"According to the most recent Bureau of Health report, Westmead Hospital median waiting time ... has gone from 45 minutes under Labor to 31 minutes under us," the minister said.
"So put that in your pipe and smoke it."
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