Ten years of Liberal Government has driven Tasmania's health system to the brink of collapse, with Tasmanians now being urged to stay away from both the Royal Hobart Hospital and Launceston General Hospital and elective surgeries being cancelled to ensure the hospitals aren't completely overwhelmed.
As ANMF Secretary Emily Shepherd said today, our health system is the worst it has ever been.
Ambulances are regularly backed up, paramedics are being rostered to the ramp, the LGH has the worst bed block in the country and only 37 per cent of Tasmanians presenting at the LGH emergency department are seen within four hours. This is shocking and completely unacceptable.
Not only does this affect Tasmanians in need of urgent healthcare, but it heaps even more pressure on Tasmania's dedicated health workers who have already been pushed to breaking point by this Liberal Government's decade of disrespect.
Rather than provide our hardworking health workers with better pay and resources, their concerns and pleas for help have fallen on deaf ears with the government preferring to rely on locum doctors and agency workers, and stalling current EBA negotiations.
Health Minister Guy Barnett has taken a completely hands-off approach, preferring to handball our woeful health outcomes to the Australian Government or deflect his responsibility to bureaucrats in the department, while Premier Jeremy Rockliff's rambling, unconvincing and dispirited response during Question Time today proves he has run out of ideas to address the crisis engulfing the health system.
In contrast, a Labor Government will be completely committed to health workforce development and we will ensure all the health policies we announce are backed with genuine workforce attraction and retention measures.
We know that the state's district hospitals are under-utilised and that is why a Labor Government will make record investments in regional healthcare to take the pressure off our four main hospitals.
After 10 years in office, the Liberals have driven our hospitals to the brink of collapse. They have failed to properly value our health workers, and have clearly run out of ideas to start addressing the crisis that is now affecting every corner of the health system.
For a new direction in healthcare, Tasmania needs a new government.
Anita Dow MP
Shadow Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing
