A MAJORITY LIBERAL GOVERNMENT WILL:
- Slash elective surgery waiting lists and deliver an additional 22,300 elective surgeries and endoscopies by investing an additional $120 million for a total investment of $156.4 million to deliver a record program of elective surgery.
- Employ up to an additional 280 full-time equivalent staff to support new and boosted services across Tasmania, including more than 160 nurses, 14 doctors, 30 allied health staff as well as more than 70 hospital support staff.
- Provide an additional 7,400 surgeries and endoscopies for the state’s North, with a funding boost of $52.1 million over the next four years, as part of the biggest ever investment into elective surgery.
- Provide an additional 20,000 dental appointments statewide, across emergency dental, general dental care and denture clinics.
- Deliver a co-located private hospital adjacent to the Launceston General Hospital, with an expected investment of around $120 million.
- Commence in 2021-22 the next stages of the Launceston General Hospital redevelopment masterplan with a $580 million major investment over 10 years to meet future demand.
- Provide a one-off $20 million fund to deliver care sooner for Tasmanians by ensuring our private hospitals are better able to support our public hospitals to manage demand.
- Strengthen palliative and community health care with an additional $52.0 million for in-home and local community-delivered health services.
- Invest in a new State-wide Hospital Equipment fund.
- Support the work of Family Planning Tasmania to deliver health services across the State for women.
- Increase access to medical cannabis products in Tasmania, including allowing GP prescriptions.
The Tasmanian Majority Liberal Government has delivered more funding, more staff, and more health services than any government before.
We are now spending $9.8 billion on health - $4 billion more than the Labor-Green Government in 2013 and a 70 per cent increase.
In fact, 32 per cent of total Budget funding is now spent on health, from 25 per cent a decade ago.
This massive injection of funding has allowed the Government to employ over 1500 more full-time hospital and health staff.
In the north of the State, this has delivered 540 additional staff at the Launceston General Hospital, including -
- 270 extra full-time nurses;
- 48 allied health professionals; and
- 92 doctors
It has allowed us to reopen hospital beds (closed by Labor), and restore vital health services to the region.
We know there is more to do, and this Plan lays out what we’ll do to address immediate demand challenges in health, while getting on with our longer-term plans for the expansion of the LGH precinct.
Further plans to deliver better health care for Tasmanians, including preventative health, mental health, ambulance and rural health, will be released shortly.
Invest an additional $120 million for a total investment of $156.4 million to deliver a record program of elective surgery to slash waiting lists and deliver an additional 22,300 elective surgeries and endoscopies
During COVID-19, the national Cabinet, with the agreement of all States, acted on public health advice to suspend all non-urgent elective surgery, to avoid bringing COVID into hospitals. This has led to increases in waiting lists across Australia.
A Majority Liberal Government will invest a new $120 million over four years on top of the $36.4 million investment already budgeted for 2021-22. This will mean that over four years $156.4 million will be spent including a total of $66.4 million in the next financial year.
This investment is estimated to deliver nearly 20,000 more elective surgeries and over 2300 extra endoscopies over the coming four years.
More than 180 staff State-wide are expected to support this increase in volume, including more than 112 nurses, 10 doctors, 16 allied health staff as well as more than 40 hospital support staff.
For the northern region, we will target more than 7400 additional surgeries and endoscopies and an investment of $52 million.
While this funding will be over the coming four years, we will prioritise 2021-22, providing an extra 8300 surgeries State-wide, bringing our expected total volume for that year to more than 22,800 surgeries in one year – almost twice the size of the waiting list, and the largest year of surgery ever in Tasmania.
From 2022-23 on, we will provide more than 3700 additional surgeries each year.
The final volume of surgeries and endoscopies for each hospital each year will be dependent on the complexity of patients and the types of surgery which will be determined in consultation with clinicians.
This will help target the backlog from the pandemic, and over the next four years, will see significantly reduced waiting lists and waiting times for Tasmanians as surgeries are delivered sooner.
20,000 more dental appointments statewide for Tasmanians
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government is committed to providing an additional $5 million for around 20,000 additional dental appointments statewide.
These appointments will support public oral health patients across emergency dental, general dental care and denture clinics.
Deliver a co-located private hospital adjacent to the Launceston General Hospital with an expected investment of around $120 million.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will deliver a new co-located private hospital for Launceston, enabling better health services and the attraction and retention of health professionals, including specialists.
We will take all action necessary to fast-track the co-location project.
A re-elected Gutwein Majority Liberal Government will, within 30 days of being sworn in, finalise with Calvary Health Care a Memorandum of Understanding to remove any outstanding impediments to this project being delivered.
We will:
- Ensure the project takes into account the needs of public and private patients, and staff, and will deliver a complementary mix of services to the LGH.
- Negotiate and finalise the terms of transfer, including commencement of construction timeframe, of the land at 52 Frankland Street to Calvary Health Care, at market value, under an enduring covenant that it must be used to deliver health services.
- Take all action necessary to support the project, including legislation if required.
- Construction of a new purpose-built mental health precinct, where the Anne O’Byrne building currently stands, to replace the existing Northside building.
- Construction of a new seven storey‑tower block on the current Northside site, providing space for up to seven new hospital wards, as well as expansion and refurbishment of existing wards, to provide more single rooms.
- A redesigned ambulance and patient drop-off zone, as well as a new and bigger ED waiting room, including separate areas for children, adults and people in acute psychological distress.
- The planned new Ward 3D designed and fitted out as a dedicated Older Persons unit, to enable best practice care for our most vulnerable patients.
- A full refurbishment of the adjacent 39 Frankland Street, as a dedicated administration and learning hub.
- A new 10 bed, 5 recliner, coronary care unit, as part of an expansion of medical imaging.
A re-elected Gutwein Liberal Government will, within 6 months, finalise an agreement subject to the satisfaction of both parties and release a draft clinical services plan and construction timeframe.
A $120 million co-located private hospital is expected to create 1400 direct and indirect jobs in the building and construction sector.
Commence in 2021-22 the next stages of the Launceston General Hospital redevelopment masterplan with a $580 million major investment over 10 years to meet future demand
Over the next decade, a re-elected Liberal Majority Government will deliver the next stages of the Launceston General Hospital.
This builds off the back of our ongoing $102 million investment in the LGH which is on track for completion in 2024.
The next stages are expected to deliver, subject to consultation:
Planning and consultation will get underway immediately and it is expected that construction of the new mental health precinct will be completed in 2027, with the final construction of the next stages estimated to be completed in 2031.
This massive injection into contemporary public health facilities for Launceston will see up to 6960 direct and indirect jobs created over the life of the project.
The final plans and timing will be determined in consultation with Launceston General Hospital clinicians and staff, to ensure disruption to service delivery is minimised, with a fully staged plan to be made public within six months of the re-election of a Majority Liberal Government.
The Australian Government will be approached to partner in the funding of this significant redevelopment of Launceston’s public hospital.
Provide a one-off $20 million fund to deliver care sooner for Tasmanians by ensuring our private hospitals are better able to support our public hospitals to manage demand
In order to assist the public sector to cope with this massive investment into elective surgery, a further one-off $20 million will be made available in a fund to allow private hospitals to support our public hospitals to manage demand by –
- assisting our public hospital sector to meet our ambitious elective surgery schedule;
- allowing for the purchase of beds from private hospitals to improve patient flow and access to care; and
- enabling private hospitals to support public hospitals with demand in other areas, including community nursing and home care.
- $27.5 million to continue our Community Rapid Response Service hospital-in-the-home type services in all regions of the State, and to further pilot hospital in the home services
- $10.5 million in additional funding to significantly strengthen our in-home palliative care and after hour care services, significantly improving end of life care especially in rural and regional communities.
- $6.8 million to provide better palliative care services, in partnership with private hospitals and service providers.
- $1.0 million for a Hospital Avoidance Co-Investment fund, to match private sector investment on a dollar-for-dollar basis to support capital upgrades for GPs and Primary Care providers who will improve or expand their facilities in order to deliver improved after-hours care.This is in addition to the $3 million already announced for GPs to support after-hours service delivery.
- $600 000 for the Heart Foundation, to support patients following their hospitalisation for a heart attack or angina.
- $1.4 million for Community Transport Services Tasmania and its 400 loyal volunteers to continue to support Tasmanians to access care.In a typical year, CTST will make more than 170,000 trips across Tasmania, travelling more than 4 million kilometres.
Within seven days of the swearing in of a re-elected Majority Liberal Government, the Government will meet with each major private hospital as well as the Community nursing and home care sector to discuss the provision of these services, and work to put arrangements in place by 30 June 2021.
Strengthen palliative and community health care with an additional $52.0 million for in-home and local community-delivered health services.
While acute care in our public hospitals has been a necessary focus to meet demand, we are simultaneously investing in community and in-home community and locally-delivered services.
These are vital services that work to keep people out of hospital or help them get home faster following a hospitalisation, when it is safe to do so.
It’s part of our increasing Our Healthcare Future agenda to ensure that care is delivered at the right time, in the right place.
These investments in community care include ambulance secondary triage and delivering new Community Rapid Response services around Tasmania.
A re‑elected Majority Liberal Government will provide $52.0 million over the next four financial years to support this care in the community, including
This will also include $4.25 million for Palliative Care Tasmania so they can continue their successful GP education and training programs, workforce development and community education and awareness.
New services established under this initiative will be evaluated after the first two years of operation.
Invest in a new State-wide Hospital Equipment fund
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will invest an additional $20 million over two years to replace and upgrade critical hospital equipment across Tasmania, including diagnostic imaging equipment.
To guide this investment, a strategic plan will be developed in consultation with our public hospital executives and clinicians, to ensure our hospitals are fully equipped to provide contemporary care for Tasmanians.
Support the work of Family Planning Tasmania to deliver health services across the State for women
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will provide $346 000 to Family Planning Tasmania, to establish and deliver new women’s health services within Family Planning Tasmania clinics in Glenorchy, Launceston and Burnie in order to will reduce public health waiting lists and referrals into the public system, providing a better patient experience.
These services will include colposcopy, pessary assessment and fitting, specialist services for patients living with disability and ultrasound services offered by Family Planning Tasmania
Increased access to Medical Cannabis
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will make improvements to Tasmania’s Controlled Access Scheme, increasing access to unregistered medical cannabis products. This will include authorising Tasmanian General Practitioners to prescribe medical cannabis products, and allowing more pharmacies across the State to dispense these products.
We will also move to adopt the national online application pathway and 48 hour authorisation timeframe, with the commencement of the new access scheme to commence from 1 July this year.
Current work underway right now in the North
- $21.6 million new HR system for health
- $3 million to support GPs and primary health providers to provide after-hour services, locally
- Recruiting a new Ambulance crew for Launceston
- $10 million rural and regional hospital and ambulance upgrades
- Establishing new dental care unit at the LGH – a first for the hospital
- Employed an additional 540 extra staff at the LGH
- Getting on with the new $20 million Women and Children’s Precinct at the LGH
- Delivered improved facilities at the LGH, including –
- Two negative pressure rooms to isolate patients;
- Two new surgical theatres;
- The first ever bariatric room for adolescents;
- A new adolescent lounge area, and contemporary school room;
- Two new levels at the LGH car park, delivering 130 more spaces; and
- Upgraded air conditioning.
- 170 more paramedics and dispatch officers State-wide, including –
- New crew for Launceston in 2017
- New rural and regional paramedics for Longford, Deloraine, St Helens and Bicheno, Beaconsfield and George Town.
- New dedicated State-wide aeromedical service
- $28 million State-wide investment in new cancer equipment
- Opened the Community Rapid Response health service (formerly hospital-in-the home, which was cut by Labor)
- Secured the John L. Grove Rehabilitation Centre with permanent funding and staffing (left un-funded by Labor)
- New State-wide Sexual Health Services Clinic for Launceston, with extra permanent doctor
- Completed the $12.1 million new St Helens Hospital
- $3 million for upgraded LGH Allied Health Clinics at the LGH
- Delivering 180 more nurse graduate positions
- $238,000 for upgrades at Deloraine District Hospital
- Secondary triage for ambulance services (to focus ambulance call-outs on emergency care)
- $6 million for mental health and wellbeing for first responders (including Ambulance)
- Nation-leading presumptive PTSD laws
- Over 180 defibrillators delivered to Tasmanian community groups
Our record in Government:
- Reopened Ward 4D at the LGH (closed by Labor)
Labor-Green Government:
- Under the last Labor-Green Government between 2010 and 2014:
- Sacked 287 nurses over a nine-month period
- Closed more than 100 hospital beds
- Slashed $58 million in funding for elective surgery – leading to a 10-year waiting backlog
- Spent $1 million fighting paramedic wage increases
- Downgraded rural hospitals at Ouse and Rosebery
- $500 million health cuts in 2011-12 Budget
- Broke health promises including new helicopter service
- More recently Labor has:
- Opposed new paramedics in regional areas
- Claimed that $10 million for rural and regional hospital and ambulance upgrades were not a priority
- Proposed closing hospitals
Costings:
Recurrent funding:
- Statewide initiatives: $200 million over five years from 2020-21.
Capital funding:
- Northern Policy: $44.5 million over four years from 2021‑22.
$535.5 million from 2025-26 to 2030‑31. - Statewide initiatives: $20.0 million over two years from 2021‑22.
Up to 280 full-time equivalent staff are expected to support these new and boosted services across Tasmania, with final models of care and staffing requirements to be determined in consultation with clinicians.