State faces hospital shake-up

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HEALTH  Minister Michael Ferguson is warning Tasmanians that a shake-up of the state’s hospitals will be unpopular and difficult to implement.

Mr Ferguson said that some complex procedures would no longer be available in Tasmania, with patients sent interstate for the same surgery.

Each of the state’s hospitals will have a definitive role, with the Mersey Hospital expected to become the centre of low complexity surgery.

Mr Ferguson said lives would be at risk if Burnie’s North West General Hospital continued with some complex procedures.

He said the hospital did not have the support services to safely allow some procedures to continue.

Mr Ferguson said there could only be one provider of some services.

“There will be some cases where patients will need to travel north and in some cases will need to travel south,’’ he said.

“Decisions in health need to be about our patients.’’

The reforms will be announced before the end of this month.