Tasmania’s Health Minister Michael Ferguson has hit the road to spruik his planned health system overhaul, which Labor claims unfairly hurts the state’s north-west.
Mr Ferguson has outlined a suite of changes that would see most complex surgical procedures performed in Hobart or Launceston.
The changes include extended or new oncology, rehabilitative, palliative or geriatric services at Burnie, and the redesignation of the Mersey Hospital at Latrobe as a state centre for elective day surgery.
Opposition Leader Bryan Green said patients in the north-west would be unfairly impacted by the changes.
“I think that the north-west coast residents come off second best, and I think at the end of the day this is about saving money by cutting services to the north-west,” said Mr Green, who is the sole Labor member for the north-west electorate of Braddon.
“I think our region deserves much better.”
Doctors, patients passing on the highway: Green
Mr Ferguson claimed his changes would result in up to 1,000 fewer patient movements per year because of extended services in Burnie and Latrobe.
The Health Minister also said new technology would result in some patients receiving care from home.
“We believe that we can reduce the burden of travel in many cases by using telehealth, and also by asking doctors to travel into the north-west to provide the service locally,” he said during a media conference outside the Mersey Hospital.
But Mr Green was unconvinced by that argument.
“You’re going to have surgeons travelling one way, and patients travelling the other,” Mr Green said.
Funding questions raised
Mr Ferguson has been adamant his changes would not impact on the health budget, and would not necessarily lead to job cuts within the Health and Human Services Department.
Greens health spokeswoman Cassy O’Connor is sceptical about that claim, and said Mr Ferguson would need to lobby Treasurer Peter Gutwein for a budget boost.
She said the draft white paper proposed new sexual health services in the north, drug and alcohol services in the north-west, and a significant extra load for complex cases at the Launceston General and the Royal Hobart Hospital.
“If we’re setting up a day elective surgery centre at the Mersey, in the north-west, then there are people potentially who’ll be travelling potentially from the south of the state to the north of the state, and they will expect those costs to be borne by government, so there’s extra money required in these reforms,” Ms O’Connor said.
But Ms O’Connor was broadly supportive of the draft white paper, and the Minister’s work in preparing the document.
“As far as I can tell, this is very soundly grounded and if it all comes to fruition it should lead to a better, safer public healthy system in Tasmania,” she said.