The Tasmanian Government will pay private providers in Tasmania and Victoria to operate on patients who have no hope of being treated in the public system.
A panel of private and public providers was being established by the Government to allow Tasmanian patients who have waiting up to 10 years for elective surgery to get treated interstate.
Expected to begin in June, the five-year panel could oversee hundreds of patients being flown out of Tasmania for treatment.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the Government was committed to clearing Tasmania’s lengthy wait lists.
“In Tasmania, we have a completely unacceptable situation where people have waited for up to 10 years for elective surgery,” he said.
The panel’s formation was part of a $26 million deal struck between the Tasmanian Government and the Commonwealth in August.
Mr Ferguson said it would be impossible to spend that in the state’s already stretched system and other states provided extra options.
“It is expected that the establishment of a panel of elective surgery providers will provide the capacity to undertake significant volumes of surgery, well beyond what can be achieved in our public hospitals,” he said.
He would not put a figure on how many extra surgeries would be conducted.
“The whole purpose of this future release of the tender is to gain interest from private providers, not just in Victoria, in Tasmania as well, so that we know what procedures can be done and at what cost,” he said.
“Naturally we’re looking at the best deal for Tasmanian taxpayers and we’re looking for good health outcomes for Tasmanians.”
At the same time, the Government was increasing the number of surgeries purchased from the private system for public patients.
“At the moment, we’ve got more money than we’re able to spend and we want to make sure that patients are not waiting longer than they have to just because our elective surgery theatres are at capacity,” Mr Ferguson said.
“It’s a maturity of the health system because it is foolish in some cases for Tasmania to try to provide some procedures that actually we simply don’t have the capability of performing.”