A proposed expansion to the Launceston Health Hub could help relieve pressures facing Tasmanian hospitals, with a team of specialists including a neurologist set to commence positions.
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A development application to allow for 50 additional car spaces and 15 additional consultation rooms at the Wellington Street site has been lodged with the City of Launceston.
Launceston Medical Centre director Dr Jerome Muir Wilson said the expansion would allow the hub’s current team of 14 to expand to up to 29, including general practice, specialist and allied health professionals.
Among the additions will be Launceston’s first integrative medicine service, a neurologist specialising in nerve conduction studies as well as the North’s first private electroencephalogram clinic.
“That’s a diagnostic test where people get their brainwaves managed when they are worried about epilepsy or having falls or funny turns,” Dr Muir Wilson explained.
“Previously that was only accessible through the LGH. We the saw the demand for patients getting in in a timely manner.”
Established in 2013, the Launceston Health Hub currently employs about 122 people with about 10,000 patients presenting every month.
Dr Muir Wilson said increasing services outside of the state’s hospital was key to relieving pressures on the health system.
“I think it is becoming increasingly evident that we can’t keep doing things the same way,” he said.
“We should look at health services that can be safely and cost-effectively done more in the community, so that they can use their physical space and staff when people are really acutely sick, and look at integrating more services back out into the community.
“Patients really like it here that they can have their GP, specialist and allied health all under the one roof.
“I think that is probably a change that the health system is going to have to look at, of what things can be done outside of the hospital.”
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Jessica Willard
Being a health reporter to me is about more than just reporting the problems. It's about asking why they are happening in the first place and what needs to change to fix it.
Being a health reporter to me is about more than just reporting the problems. It's about asking why they are happening in the first place and what needs to change to fix it.
