TASMANIA'S new health commission will focus on elective surgery, particularly waiting list and theatre management in the next stage of its state public health system investigation.
The independent commission's preliminary report released earlier this week identified the three-person commission's intention to ensure safety and quality of care in public health services.
Commission chairman Alan Bansemer, of Western Australia, said that the group had also told both federal and state governments that it would look more closely at public health issues of governance, efficiency and system configuration.
"A further, detailed report will be provided to both (federal and state) health ministers later in 2013, which will outline our recommendations following further research, analysis and consultation," Mr Bansemer said.
Victorian health consultant Heather Wellington, who produced the previous most recent Tasmanian health report for the state government, and Launceston General Hospital director of medicine Alisdair Macdonald are the two other members of the commission appointed by the federal government to provide advice on ways to improve the delivery of health care in Tasmania.
The development of the commission was one of the prerequisites of the $325 million federal government health rescue package to Tasmania announced by federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek in the middle of last year.
Ms Plibersek said that the commission's preliminary report was a first step towards improving the access to health care for Tasmanian patients.
State Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne said that the commission's early work was helping state health to understand how to improve health service delivery long term and the areas that needed work.
State opposition health spokesman Jeremy Rockliff said that the preliminary report made grim reading and highlighted that Tasmania had fewer public hospital beds per capita than the national average.
Mr Bansemer said that the commission's first report was compiled after a series of consultation forums in November last year followed by consumer research with community members across the state.
