The first thing incoming Health Minister Jacquie Petrusma needs to do is come clean about the sweeping cuts planned for the Health Department.
The Health Department's 2023-24 Annual Report, released late last week, reveals there will be massive cuts to every major area of the health system. This includes $38.2 million from emergency department services, $5.4 million from ambulance services, $45.4 million from statewide and mental health services, and a shocking $112 million from outpatient services at a time when waiting lists have already more than doubled.
To be clear: there is hundreds of millions of dollars less allocated for those services in the 2024-25 state budget than was spent during the 2023-24 financial year - the cuts are right there in black and white.
All up, the minority Liberal government plans to cut $290 million from health this financial year, including $130 million directly from health jobs - the equivalent of sacking three nurses a day. Across the forward estimates there will be $600 million of cuts - the deepest cuts inflicted on any department.
Petrusma will be the fifth Health Minister in five years for the Liberals following on from Michael Ferguson, Sarah Courtney, Jeremy Rockliff and Guy Barnett. Outgoing Minister Barnett was completely dishonest and deceptive about the deep and sweeping cuts he had planned for his Department, but the new Health Minister has a chance to be honest and upfront about exactly where the cuts are going to come from, and which jobs and services will be impacted.
Budget cuts of this magnitude are inevitably going to impact service delivery and patient care. As somebody with experience working in Tasmania's health system, I hope the incoming Minister will be able to stand up against her minority government's savage health cuts.
If she can't, it will be Tasmanian patients that pay the price.
Ella Haddad MP
Shadow Minister for Health
