ACM exposed in February that the public hospital system had racked up a $697 million deficit in the first three months of 2023-24.

Later in February ACM revealed the shortfall had blown out to nearly $1.5 billion in the six months to December 2023 and was on track to surge past $3 billion by the end of June 2024.

The huge blowouts reflected what senior hospital staff were seeing on the ground, with the state government and Health Department pushing health services to find cuts and in some cases refusing to guarantee "top ups" to hospitals' cash reserves.

The evidence of the massive deficits had come from confidential financial monitoring reports provided to health services to show how they were tracking for the year.

Parts of these reports had been leaked to expose the unprecedented financial chaos the hospital system was in.

But in March, a whole section of data in the reports disappeared.

One regional health service CEO said they had suddenly been frozen out of the finances for other hospitals and the system as a whole. They could no longer see how they were tracking against other health services.

They said it was undoubtedly a response to the leaks.

ACM asked the government why the heath services had been cut off from accessing vital financial data.

Initially it denied the data was being withheld, before saying the freeze out was not a government decision.

The government declined to say whether the move was intended to punish the health services for the leaks.

ACM asked why the government was trying to conceal the financial state of the hospital system. A spokesperson denied any information cover-up.

"We are always open and transparent about the funding of our health system and this remains the case - all annual reports are tabled in Parliament and are audited by the Victorian Auditor General," the spokesperson said.

"We have a world-class health system in Victoria - it continues to be our largest investment and will remain the case as we deliver more healthcare workers, better facilities, and the latest equipment so Victorians can get the right care, in the right place, at the right time."

The regional health service CEO - who spoke anonymously to discuss internal matters - said they had not been able to see the financial results for other hospitals since the January results, which were released in March.

It has left health services to manage their spending for the final three months of the financial year without any frame of reference from other hospitals.

ACM asked the government whether it was happy for the state's hospitals to fly blind for the final quarter of 2023-24.

The government said there was nothing stopping one health service from calling another to ask for its latest financial results. But it has concurrently ordered all health services to cut unnecessary administration as it tries to limit the damage to the state budget from the huge hospital deficits.

Dozens of Small Rural Health Services across the state have been told to find savings of up to 10 per cent per year over the next three years under Financial Management Improvement plans. Some have been tasked with saving $1 million, which is an enormous sum for a small service.

Health service CEOs and the Victorian Healthcare Association have called the forced cuts unreasonable and arbitrary, and warned they will ultimately hit front line clinical staff.