Sarah Courtney,Minister for Health
The Hodgman majority Liberal Government is focused on continuing to deliver our plan to build a better health system for all Tasmanians.
We welcome the Auditor-General’s report into the rostering of specialists in our major hospitals.
As a Government, each and every year we are spending more than $500 million more on health than six years ago.
This funding is supporting 172 more full-time equivalent doctors – with our medical workforce growing by 20% – from 844 FTE doctors in the health system in March 2014, to 1,016 FTE doctors in June 2019.
This is a massive increase, and we need to make sure we continue to strive to get better patient outcomes for Tasmanians for every dollar we invest in health.
The recommendations and findings contained within the report outline opportunities to do this, by better supporting our hardworking medical workforce and providing better care for more Tasmanians.
The Department of Health will now closely examine these findings, including investigating electronic rostering and time management systems.
We recognise there is demand pressure on all our hospitals and our hard working staff, driven by increasing presentations and patient complexity, which is exactly why we are investing to meet these challenges.
