For more than 20 years, Launceston’s medical community has been lobbying both major political parties to facilitate a co-located public and private hospital set up at the LGH.
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It has been talked about and considered over the past few years, with a feasibility study understood to have been undertaken when the previous government was in power. However, despite all that talk, the possibility of co-location has never been closer to becoming a reality than it is now.
The Examiner last week revealed that a confidential unsolicited bid was before the Office of the Coordinator-General from Calvary.
The proposal, which was submitted in December, is for a multi-level private hospital co-located with the Launceston General Hospital, connecting the two via a corridor.
That was followed by an announcement by Opposition Leader Rebecca White that a Labor majority government would immediately call for expressions of interest for a co-located build from private hospital providers, if it won the election. She also pledged $250,000 toward a health precinct masterplan around the LGH.
An initial decision on the current Calvary proposal could be handed down as early as this month, with the stage one process usually taking six to eight weeks.
If successful, it would then go to stage two – a Memorandum of Understanding.
The Australian Medical Association and Launceston Chamber of Commerce both welcomed Labor’s policy announcement for both a health precinct and a co-located hospital. However, some Launceston doctors fear the potential co-location project could get lost in further committees, reports and red tape. Calvary’s former medical advisory committee chair Dr Mike Monsour said Labor’s plan could further delay the introduction of a co-located public-private hospital set up at the LGH, with a “sound proposal, including business plans”, already before the government.
Transparency is an important factor when talking about public land, and it will be interesting to see how the unsolicited proposal progresses if the first stage is approved.
It is equally important to ensure bureaucracy doesn’t hold up co-location plans for so long that it gets lost in a pile somewhere on a government desk. As Dr Monsour said, the health of our community depends on it.
Co-location would be a massive step forward for the North and should be made a priority.
