horror week for Tasmania’s hospitals and health system
Courtney has done nothing to fix the health crisis
must reverse health cuts before more lives are lost
Four months into the role of
Health Minister, Sarah Courtney has failed to make any real progress towards
fixing the crisis in Tasmania’s hospitals and health system.
Shadow Health Minister,
Sarah Lovell, said after yet another horror week in health, Tasmanians were no
closer to seeing some action, let alone any kind of vision or plan from the
Government.
“Four months on and Sarah
Courtney has done nothing to deliver her plan to fix the mess left by her
predecessor Michael Ferguson,” Ms Lovell said.
“We still have patients
dying unnecessarily while waiting for the care they need in our hospitals, we
still have severe ambulance ramping and the number of people waiting for
surgery has blown out to almost 10 thousand.
“This week we saw statistics from the Department of Health annual report
which revealed hospitals are drastically incapable of meeting their own
performance targets.
“We also heard from the
Director of Emergency Medicine at the Royal Hobart Hospital, Dr Emma Huckerby,
who revealed that 1800 admitted patients waited more than 24 hours for a bed in
the Royal Hobart hospital last year.
“Then there’s the lengthy
delays and serious issues surrounding the Royal Hobart Hospital redevelopment
and the latest debacle where construction dust has damaged around $1 million
worth of new communications equipment.
“The list of critical issues facing our hospitals and health system
continues to grow while Sarah Courtney and Will Hodgman sit back and watch it
all unfold.
“The Government has
systematically underfunded health for over half a decade and things will only
get worse under the Government’s $450 million budget cuts.
“Sarah Courtney must stand up to the Premier and Treasurer, listen to the experts and the community and reverse the Government’s callous health cuts before more lives are lost.”
Sarah Lovell MLC
Shadow Health Minister
