MICHAEL FERGUSON: The shortage of certain specialists has plagued Tasmania for decades. Certain specialists are in high demand nationally and despite this we are starting to turn the tide with several recent successes, including the recent success of two permanent endocrinologists.

The Hodgman government will continue to face this issue head on by establishing a dedicated workforce unit that will more aggressively market our jobs interstate and overseas. We offer greater flexibility in salary packages to allow for more competitive recruitment for specialists to take up positions in the North and on the North West we are running a 25 per cent recruitment retention allowance trial.

REBECCA WHITE: Labor will change the landscape for Northern health services by creating the Launceston health precinct around the existing LGH, establishing better access to quality health services and placing the North in its strongest position ever to attract and retain quality staff. We will respect and work with health staff to improve the workplace culture that will foster a work environment that helps Tasmania recruit and retain staff, maintain accreditation and provide a safe and productive place of work.

Labor will improve engagement with UTAS to enhance research and teaching opportunities which will make Tasmania a more attractive place for specialists to work.

ROSALIE WOODRUFF: You need to fund permanent positions, on contract, at competitive rates to attract and keep quality staff. 

The use of locum specialists, and the overtime and double-shifts of nurses, have sky-rocketed under the Liberals. The Greens have committed to workforce planning, and funding an extra 200 beds statewide, and the staff that go with them.

WHITE: Labor’s precinct masterplan will be the blueprint for the transformation of the city’s health and hospital services. Our vision is for a precinct that is centred around the LGH, and the planning work will include an audit of government-owned property in the area, to identify opportunities for future development and service location. This process will inform the appropriate site for a co-located private hospital to be funded by the private provider, as well as more car parking and better linkages with public transport.

Ensuring government drives this project means that consultation can take place about the design and service mix to ensure that the there is a high level of collaboration across both private and public provided services. This work would not put at risk the expansion to the children’s ward, which has already been funded and agreed to by the Labor party.

WOODRUFF: There’s been too much politicisation of hospital funding. We would be very suspicious of fixed views about the position and size of a new LGH at this point.

Announcements for long-term infrastructure and hundreds of millions of public dollars need proper consultation. These should be decided in consultation with consumer, doctor, nursing, allied health and ambulance groups.

FERGUSON: We are willing to work with any organisation to investigate such proposals, and indeed a co-location proposal has been put forward by Calvary Health and is being assessed by the Coordinator-General according to due process. 

Unlike Labor though, we would 1) not reject Calvary's proposal outright, 2) not give away the public carpark to a private operator, and 3) not make up rushed policy that would prevent our plans for a major redevelopment of the LGH, specifically that would threaten the long awaited expansion of the children’s ward 4K.

WOODRUFF: Without refocusing overall budget priorities into keeping people healthy, and putting preventive health services into regional communities, Tasmanians’ health will slip even further behind other states. We’ve listened to paramedics and the medical, nursing and allied health sectors. They’re very concerned by the failure of the Liberals and Labor to develop a strategic, long-term workforce plan. 

We’ve committed to doing this, and to reform the THS to return a voice to hospital staff and consumer groups. Governments terms are four years, not six. While it’s irresponsible - and deceitful – to make election commitments that run into the next term government, you can make overarching plans.

FERGUSON: Strong economic management in our first term of government means we can invest in health and other important services and plan for the long-term. The One Health System reforms have guided massive improvements to the delivery of health services. We will be refreshing hospital master plans and workforce plans to anticipate needs and deliver future services.

If re-elected we will commit an additional $757 million into health, which will fund more hospital beds and more health professionals to treat more patients in need of health care across the state and particularly in the North.

WHITE: Labor’s $560 million boost to the health and hospital system will begin from day one to fix the health crisis. Labor will employ 500 more health workers in the first four years of government and update the masterplans for the state’s four hospitals, with $250 million allocated to capital upgrades to make sure our hospitals can meet current and future demand.

Labor’s vision is for a health and hospital system that is better integrated across primary, community and the hospital network with better collaboration with UTAS and a stronger focus on health promotion and prevention.