One in four Tasmanians are living with three or more chronic conditions such as heart and lung disease, diabetes and obesity. Yet these illnesses are preventable.
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And even as they continue to put pressure on our public hospital system and emergency departments, there are strategies available to ease that burden and spread the load across the entire health system - both public and private.
The fact the state government has confirmed its ambitions for Tasmania to be the healthiest state in the nation by 2025 opens the door to what should be a serious discussion about both preventative care.
The light being shone on our health system through the budget estimates hearings reveals a seemingly never-ending cycle of crisis where the gut reaction of government is to throw more money at the acute end of the system.
For decades we have funded more beds, more elective surgery, more fly-in locums. Locums alone cost the state $34 million in 2019-20 - with $13.4 million at the Launceston General Hospital alone.
Thirty-two per cent of the state budget spending goes on health - but it currently does little to help Tasmania hit that ambitious but laudable 2025 target.
The government should be applauded for sticking to the target. It's a goal St Lukes Health strongly supports. But to achieve it we can't continue to keep doing what we have always done. We need new solutions to these old problems.
There needs to be a new focus on preventative care and the development of public-private partnerships. We have already seen the benefits of this throughout the COVID-19 pandemic where private hospitals took on public patients so our public hospitals could concentrate on our pandemic response.
As part of this new thinking, Tasmania now has this one-in-a-generation opportunity at its fingertips with Calvary's $100 million bid to co-locate a private hospital within the LGH precinct.
Currently private patients have to present at the ED of the LGH, putting obvious pressure on the public system. A co-located private hospital relieves that pressure - and gives both private and public systems access to specialist services and improves the retention and recruitment of those specialists.
We must not rely on a public health system to "fix" us in our time of need. We must look towards preventative health measures where Tasmanians can take control of their health, but we must also give them the tools to be able to do this effectively, including a guarantee that health services are accessible and affordable.
- Paul Lupo is chief executive of St.LukesHealth.
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