An additional 161 medical staff will be recruited at the Launceston General Hospital if the Liberals are re-elected on March 3.
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At the Tasmanian Liberals’ official campaign launch on Sunday morning – which took place in an aircraft hangar in the state’s South - Premier Will Hodgman detailed his party’s health policy ahead of the election.
“We will … deliver the single biggest boost to healthcare in our state’s history,” Premier Will Hodgman said in his address.
The Liberals plan to inject $757 million into the state’s health system over six years.
From a statewide perspective, that equates to 298 new beds and an additional 1332 medical staff.
The bulk of the package will go to the South, with 250 extra beds to be created at the Royal Hobart Hospital, as well as 1073 new staff – that amounts to an investment of $459 million.
Meanwhile, $160 million of the money will go to the North, as a new ward with 32 beds is set to open by 2023, as well as eight new beds for the redeveloped 4K children’s ward.
All in all, the North-West will receive a $79 million investment.
Australian Medical Association Tasmania president Stuart Day said the Liberals’ policy “addresses many of the issues in the AMA’s Tasmanian election platform”.
“The AMA has been concerned that there has been an under-investment in health and, as a result, we have not been performing as we should have been,” he said.
“We believe this investment will put us back on track.”
He also commended Labor for its own health policy, which seeks to deliver $560 million to the health system over six years.
It would create 100 additional graduate nurse positions, 20 hospital doctors, 25 ambulance paramedics and 30 general practitioner internships.
Labor Leader Rebecca White said the Liberals had made “extraordinary commitments” which they could not say how they would fund.
“People just won’t buy this,” she said.