Launceston General Hospital doctors have slammed the level of care available for Northern diabetes and endocrinology patients.
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Endocrinology encompasses care for hormonal conditions and complicated diabetes.
A letter obtained by Fairfax Tasmania addressed to Northern GPs from LGH endocrinologists Anne Corbould and Joanne Campbell was dated December 2016.
The LGH endocrinology unit currently employs 0.3 full time equivalent staff, a position that is shared by Drs Corbould and Campbell.
The letter raised serious concerns about a consistent “critical shortage” of endocrinology staff across the North and North-West after both endocrinologists at the NWRH resigned in 2015.
In late 2015, the doctors sent a letter informing GPs the LGH could no longer accept new referrals, except for patients needing urgent review and pregnant women.
A year later the endocrinologists remained unable to accept non-urgent referrals.
Endocrinology staffing at the LGH was “inadequate” at 0.3 full-time equivalent for the last decade, the letter said, but the Tasmanian Health Service agreed the North and North-West required 3.3.
“The response of the THS to the … issues has been characterised by a lack of urgency,” it said.
A state government spokesman said “access to endocrinology services in Northern Tasmania is a long-standing problem which the Government is actively working to resolve, after many years of neglect.”
“[Health] Minister Ferguson has publicly decried this unacceptable situation and directed the new recruitment process as part of the One Health System White Paper process,” the spokesman said.
“The application process for a new full-time endocrinology specialist at the LGH closed late last year and the recruitment process is continuing.”
The NWRH employed one FTE that was made up of two endocrinologists. After they both resigned in 2015 recruitment to replace them was unsuccessful. The vacancies are believed to have been filled by intermittent locums. Combined with inadequate LGH staffing, this resulted in a “crisis” for diabetes and endocrine services, the letter said.
The letter, titled ‘Diabetes care in Northern Tasmania: a disgrace for the Tasmanian Health Service, a disaster for patients’, voiced support for the recruitment to LGH and the endocrinologists wrote they hoped to work with Northern GPs to “design an integrated hospital/community diabetes care service”.
LGH Medical Staff Association chairman Dr Scott Parkes said he understood endocrinology was a major factor in the hospital’s adult internal medicine training accreditation downgrade.
Dr Parkes welcomed news that the state government was recruiting, but said hiring more than one FTE would be best.
“It’s just a matter of recruiting to [the role] and that’s always difficult,” he said. Dr Parkes said he believed the situation would eventually “resolve”.
