Launceston’s medical and business communities say the public needs to better understand the potential benefits of a co-located private hospital at the Launceston General Hospital.
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Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey said his wife, Jenny’s, stay at the LGH was a good example of where a co-located set-up would have been beneficial.
“She had an injury that meant she couldn’t be far away from an operating theatre, so she had to be close in case anything went wrong,” Mr Bailey said.
“If we had a co-joint hospital, she could have been wheeled down that corridor to the private facility, freeing up a public bed, but she’d still be within striking distance of the public facility if she needed it.
“So it’s mistaken for the community to think of private and public as being really separate beasts. They are in some respects, but actually work very closely together in other ways.
“A private hospital working properly close to the General would take pressure off the LGH beds.”
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An unsolicited proposal from Calvary for a private hospital was submitted to the Office of the Coordinator-General in December, and an initial decision is expected in the coming weeks.
Earlier this month, the opposition announced it would facilitate a health precinct and co-located private hospital at the LGH if elected.
Mrs Bailey’s injury occurred when she was in a mountain bike crash at Trevallyn. She punctured an artery in her leg and needed surgery.
“She was in the LGH as a private patient,” Mr Bailey said.
“She was in the public ward because she had to be close to the theatre, taking up a bed, and she felt terrible about it because she understands the pressure on the hospital, but there was nothing else they could do.
“She’s one good example of how a private hospital, connected by a corridor, would have freed up one bed across the course of that week [in December], and there’d be a million other examples.”
Doctors have been lobbying politicians for more than 20 years for a co-located public-private hospital set-up at the LGH.
Launceston cardiologist Dr Geoff Evans said, if the benefits of co-location were properly understood, there was “little doubt the community would be active in support of the new hospital”.
“The need to travel between hospitals, however small the distance, has reduced the attractiveness of private hospital practice for many Northern specialists,” he said.
“Having spent much of my training and early specialist career in an efficient co-located hospital, I can assure the people of Northern Tasmania that the opportunities and outcomes outlined are achievable and real.”
