Key Points
Labor will upgrade services at Tasmania’s 18 regional health facilities and six ambulance stations to provide better healthcare close to where people live.
This will help patients be seen sooner, and take pressure off our major hospitals.
Labor will:
- Create a $60m local hospital upgrade fund
- Employ 215 additional health professionals
- Upgrade 6 regional ambulance stations to 24/7 coverage, with 21 new paramedics
- Pay the uni fees of 150 health professionals as an incentive for the key workers we need
- Expand the Rural Medical Workforce Centre to train more key workers
Innovation and new ideas are what’s needed to start addressing the health crisis.
Why we need it
After ten years of a Liberal government, Tasmania’s health system is the worst it has ever been and needs desperate repair.
Ambulance ramping is out of control, and the wait times in emergency departments are the worst in the nation.
Meanwhile, the Liberals’ current budget contains a $140 million cut to health from their spending the year before.
Labor’s plan will see multidisciplinary teams of doctors and nurses — alongside allied health professionals, registered and enrolled nurses — expand the services available in regional Tasmania so that people can receive care close to where they live in their time of need.
This will in turn remove significant pressure off the state’s major hospitals, so all Tasmanians benefit.
The details
Labor’s plan provides practical solutions to reduce bed block, ambulance ramping and emergency department overcrowding at our major hospitals by increasing access to health services closer to where people live.
Currently the facilities average bed capacity of 50% and are unable to attract and retain health staff.
The 18 local health facilities are:
Bass
1. Beaconsfield District Health Service
2. Flinders Island Multi-Purpose Centre (Whitemark Hospital)
3. George Town District Hospital and Community Service
4. North Eastern Soldiers Memorial Hospital (Scottsdale)
Braddon
5. King Island District Hospital
6. West Coast District Hospital
7. Smithton District Hospital
Lyons
8. New Norfolk District Hospital
9. Midlands Multipurpose Centre (Oatlands)
10.Campbell Town Health and Community Service
11. Tasman Multi-Purpose Centre
12. St Helens District Hospital and Community Centre
13. St Marys Community Health Centre
14. May Shaw Health Centre (Swansea)
15. Deloraine District Hospital
16. Toosey Aged and Community Care (Longford)
Franklin
17. Huon Regional Care
18. Esperance Multi-Purpose Health Centre (Dover)
The types of care available will be for:
- Emergency care for an unwell child in the middle of the night
- Transitional or respite care for Tasmanians waiting for NDIS or Aged Care Packages
- Primary care for elderly patients admitted to hospital after a fall or suffering from pneumonia or influenza
- Chronic disease patients
- Rehabilitation after serious injury
- Burns and wound care
The ambulance stations upgraded to double branch stations (24 /7 paramedics) will be at:
- Smithton
- Queenstown
- Nubeena
- Bridport
- Swansea
- Oatlands
Upgrading these stations means we will employ 21 new paramedics and have the stations staffed 24/7 by paramedics.
The 215 health workers employed in local hospitals will include:
- 90 nurse practitioners
- 18 rural general doctors
- 30 allied health professionals
- 41 extra nurses (RNs, ENs and clinical nurse educators)
- 36 additional admin positions
Local Hospital Infrastructure Fund
Through the $60m infrastructure fund, services can apply for things like upgrading consultation rooms, increasing beds or purchase equipment like x-rays or ultrasounds.
There will also be $3m available to make necessary upgrades to the ambulance stations.
This will mean fewer ambulances will be diverted from other stations, allowing paramedics and volunteers to better serve their local communities and see better outcomes for patients.