Shadow Minister for Health and Human Services

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01
Jul

Poor score for Tasmania in another hospital report

2009

Yet another report has confirmed Tasmania’s position as bottom of the ladder in the delivery of hospital services.

The report shows –

• Tasmania has one of the lowest rates of public hospital beds, and one of the highest rates of private hospital beds per 1000 population;

• Of public hospital beds, only 82% are accredited in Tasmania (93% national average) and this needs explanation;

• Despite the Health Minister telling us that Tasmanian public hospitals are always at capacity, Tasmania had one of the lowest rate of admissions for public patients per 1000 weighted population (145 compared to national average of 184);

• Tasmania had the longest average length of hospital stay (7.3 days compared to 6.5 days national average);

• Just 66% of Tasmanians waiting for elective surgery were seen within clinically recommended timeframes compared to an 84% national average;

• The number of Tasmanians waiting longer than a year for surgery was 10.1% compared to 1.8% in NSW and a national average of 3.0%.

• In Tasmania just 77% of Category 1 patients were seen on time – the worst results of all States – and just 49% of Category 2 patients and 71% of Category 3 patients were seen on time.

• Tasmania had the lowest rate of Emergency Department presentations per weighted population for all States yet performs poorly in terms of emergency patients being seen within clinically recommended timeframes. Tasmania also has one of the lowest rates of admission or referral of Emergency patients.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, gave the State Governments until mid-2009 to fix their hospital system.

He said the “buck would stop” with him if they failed.

It’s now obvious that at least some State Governments – like Tasmania – are continuing to fail.

And while it seems clear from these results that Lara Giddings would prefer the Australian Government take responsibility of our hospitals – and many Tasmanians are fed up with endless waiting lists and the Health Minister’s excuses - most Tasmanians would find it disturbing to contemplate relinquishing local influence of their hospitals.

There are better ways of spending the health dollar to get results but nothing will change if we don’t change the government.

Centralisation of administration of hospitals in Canberra is not the answer. It’s bad enough being centralised in Hobart.

Localisation and regionalisation of hospitals and health services to ensure quick, responsive decision-making is a better way, as is real partnering with all regional health services, from private hospitals to the already-established family of organisations that manage and support people with chronic disease in our State.

While Lara Giddings throws up her hands at yet another damning hospital report; the Liberals have a plan to achieve real and lasting results without giving away our hospitals.