The Australian Medical Association (AMA) report, released last week, warned of a "perfect storm" in the public system as Commonwealth funding continued to shrink and performance benchmarks remained unmet.

Mr Jones, assistant opposition health spokesman, said Commonwealth funding for public hospitals would be reduced by a further $57 billion from 2017 to 2024.

He said that would come on top of $1.8 billion in cuts to public hospitals in last year's federal budget. And it would result in increased waiting times for emergency treatment and elective surgery.

"The AMA has confirmed what we've heard locally but also what performance indicators like emergency department waiting times are showing," he said.

"Locally, neither Wollongong nor Shellharbour nor Shoalhaven hospitals are meeting the minimum national standards that have been agreed between the Commonwealth and the states under existing funding arrangements.

"These problems are only going to get worse as funding declines - that will mean longer delays in being seen in emergency wards, greater delays in having your surgery, and more stresses and problems in the public system."

The latest Bureau of Health Information Hospital Quarterly Report showed that almost 40,000 people visited emergency departments across the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District from October to December 2014, and 71 per cent left within four hours, well below the 80 per cent target.

AMA vice-president Dr Stephen Parnis, an emergency physician in one of Melbourne's busy city hospitals, said hospital staff as well as patients were feeling the heat across the nation.

"Emergency departments are very stressful places but we do it because we enjoy it, we're good at it and we're trained for it," he said.

"But the most efficient care that's provided would be undermined when the resourcing isn't available to meet the demand."

"The majority of the population understand the stress we're faced with, but it doesn't help when people are in distress, when they're unwell and in need of urgent care - and then they have to wait."

Dr Parnis said that unless the May budget showed some change in direction, the public hospital system was heading towards the "perfect storm".

"We have faced, year in year out, increasing levels of demand for both elective surgical care and emergency treatment across the public hospital system in this country," he said.

"Commonwealth funding cuts are putting a huge burden on the state and territory governments to maintain the provision of services, let alone improve access in a timely fashion."

Mr Jones said regional and rural areas would bear the brunt of funding cuts, due to reduced access to healthcare options relative to city areas.

Mr Jones called on the government to honour its pre-election commitment to meet an equal share of growth in public hospital costs.

"The Coalition government pledged to provide 50 per cent of growth funding of the efficient price of hospital services," he said. "But it has withdrawn these funding guarantees, leaving the states to scramble around to try and fill in the gaps."

Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley has rejected the criticism, claiming the funding deal reached under the former Labor government was unsustainable.

lwachsmuth@fairfaxmedia.com.au