Health Minister MICHAEL FERGUSON talks to health reporter CARLY DOLAN about what the government’s fourth state budget means for the North and North-West.
Carly Dolan: What were the highlights of the budget for health in the North?
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Michael Ferguson: The whole state shares in the benefits of the $658 million increase over the four years. That tips us over $7 billion for the first time ever.
The North enjoys a very big piece of that, particularly given that the North was the first mover in terms of getting beds open last August when we reopened ward 4D. We’re maintaining that and permanently funding and increasing those numbers up to 19 beds and including three single rooms.
The John L Grove is now locked in as a permanent feature of the Launceston General Hospital service, providing really important rehabilitation and slow-to-recover care.
There’s the total renovation of 4K – the children’s ward, including adolescent mental health capabilities, and a 33 per cent increase in our ambulance capability in the North.
CD: And the North-West?
MF: The North-West gets the permanent funding for their eight additional beds, which are based at the North-West Regional Hospital. We announced them in February and made it clear they would be in the budget, but didn’t want to wait for the budget to commence the work. So that work has already been done.
The pre-admissions area is getting renovated as well in the budget, and the Mersey Community Hospital is going to return to state ownership on July 1.
CD: What do you see as your most significant health announcement in this budget, statewide?
MF: The biggest budget announcement for health is the 106 extra beds – that is a massive increase in capability.
CD: When will the new paramedics you announced on Friday be operational?
MF: We’ll operationalise that as soon as the staff are recruited. Given there was a bit of speculation about what a review of Ambulance Tasmania might yield up, I felt that we should let it be known that part of the review recommendations that we’re accepting is an additional 24/7 crew in the North and the South, and some better back-fill along with it.
CD: So when will they be on the road?
MF: As soon as we can. We are recruiting them and more ads were in newspapers on Saturday.
CD: Will there be any extra ambulance staff in the North-West?
MF: Not in this budget. Last budget, we did with 12 paramedics.
CD: Ambulances are doing a lot more kilometres in the North-West and there are reports of patients waiting for hours for transport from the Mersey to Burnie or Launceston. How are you addressing that?
MF: The availability of ambulance to undertake emergency transport in the North-West is actually amongst our best. We want the ambulance to take the patient to the Mersey if that’s appropriate. For example, for chest pain, but we want them to go to Launceston or Burnie for some of the other serious emergency transports.
The actual response times for the North-West and the availability is doing much better than the North and South, and that’s where the pressure points are right now.
Some of the transfers between hospitals are non-emergency, so Ambulance Tasmania has a fleet for that, and there are also some private providers.
CD: How will this budget address issues at the LGH like ambulance ramping and elective surgery waiting lists?
MF: We’ve actually got the elective surgery waiting list at the LGH at the lowest level and overdues are down from somewhere in the realm of 50 per cent to closer to 20 per cent now. We will continue to drive that down. The budget announcement will help performance for medical patients and reducing ramping because we’re opening medical beds.
CD: Of the 350 extra health jobs you talk about, how many will be in the North and North-West?
MF: 47 beds for North and North-West Tasmania means more than 120 staff, including more than 65 nurses, 10 allied health staff and six doctors. For the John L Grove rehabilitation centre, we have delivered certainty so we can move to permanent employment of staff, ending the uncertainty of fixed-term contracts.
CD: What’s in store for the mental health spending?
MF: The biggest package there is the $11 million, which is about providing community mental health. My vision is to de-stigmatise mental health. We want people to be able to get more help in the home and in their community.
