A LACK of after-hour doctor services in Tasmania contributed to more than half of all hospital emergency patients being semi or non-urgent.
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But in a health success story for the state, Tasmanian public hospitals recorded the best improvements nationally for emergency patients seen on time, from 63 per cent to 72 per cent.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare "emergency department care" hospital statistics released today show that 100 per cent of category 1 patients were seen immediately and 82 per cent of category 2 emergency patients were seen within 10 minutes.
Tasmania, alongside Western Australia, had the highest national rates of emergency presentations that did not require hospitalisation.
In a breakdown, this equated to 0.5 per cent of the state's 148,278 emergency department presentations falling into category 1, 8.4 per cent falling into emergency, 34.6 per cent in classified as urgent, 47.1 per cent as semi-urgent, while the remaining 9.4 per cent were non-urgent.
Tim Jacobson said the inability of regional Tasmania to easily access GPs contributed to the higher non and semi-urgent emergency presentations.
He said the federal government's $7 co-payment would exacerbate the issue.
"We have a community that is sicker, older and more socially disadvantaged than other states and territories, we also have a real issue in terms of people's ability to access general practitioners, particularly after hours," he said.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian state secretary Neroli Ellis said the increase of "seen in time" presentations in Tasmania was due to the hard work of hospital staff.
She said methods to increase emergency department efficiency such as nurse practitioners, hospital fast track systems and short-stay units had assisted the rise.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson blamed the figures on the previous government.
"We know we can't turn around 16 years of Labor mismanagement overnight, that's why we've got a long-term plan to rebuild essential services," Mr Ferguson said.
"That's why we're reforming our health system into a single, statewide model, with consistent clinical standards to improve patient flow and discharge practices which will help improve ED times.
"We're also supporting the work of Health Services Innovation Tasmania, which is undertaking a review of improving the flow of patients from Tasmanian hospital emergency departments into inpatient wards."
