Essential women’s and LGBTQIA+ healthcare services cannot become collateral damage in the sale of Hobart Private Hospital to Calvary amid Tasmania’s health system crisis. 

With a decision on the sale expected next week, Labor is calling on the State Government to provide a clear plan to guarantee there will be no reduction in women’s or LGBTQIA+ healthcare.

Calvary does not offer services including pregnancy terminations, IVF, gender-affirming surgeries, contraception and some reproductive health, and the closure of Hobart Private will mean many of these services will no longer be provided privately anywhere in the state.

The sale is awaiting consideration from the ACCC, but as Calvary is the only bidder, the only other option is that the hospital close. 

The Government has repeatedly claimed there will be no shortfall in services, but Health Minister Bridget Archer has so far offered little more than her word.

These services cannot simply be shifted onto the public system without additional staff, funding, beds and theatre capacity.

With the archconservative Eric Abetz cutting $700 million from the health system, it is difficult to see how the state government can fill the service gaps that could be left by the sale.

It is simply not good enough to leave patients and healthcare providers wondering whether access to services will disappear and how a public system at breaking point will be expected to pick up the pieces. 

Tasmanians deserve better, but all they’re going to get from a Liberal Government that simply does not care is $700 million in cuts from a health system already at breaking point.