Independent candidate for Bass Dr George Razay has outlined his plan to reduce pressure on the Launceston General Hospital just days out from the federal election.
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When announcing his candidacy last month, the career physician said health would be one of the cornerstones of his campaign, with the doctor to draw from his extensive medical career to address the issues impacting the North.
Mounting pressure on the North's primary referral hospital - the LGH - has been one of the issues debated in the lead up to election day, with peak medical organisations calling for greater funding, but Dr Razay said there were existing services that could be leveraged to reduce the strain.
"One of the main issues in the public debate on health care rests on whether Australian hospitals have enough beds," he said.
"Doctors and patients want more hospital beds, and governments and political leaders of all persuasions promise more beds."
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Dr Razay said despite a recent increase in the number of beds at the LGH, there was still pressure and a lack of access to beds in the hospital's emergency departments.
The doctor, who specialised in the diagnosis and treatment of dementia and Alzheimer's disease said taking a proactive approach to identifying treatable diseases before they ended up in hospital, or in an aged care facility, would free up beds and alleviate pressure on the North's health system, and pointed to examples in his own field as prospective solutions.
According to Dr Razay, idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus is a treatable form of dementia that is often misdiagnosed with other conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia.
With 68 per cent of the people living in aged care homes having some form of dementia, Dr Razay said it was likely a fraction - about 15 per cent - had been misdiagnosed with the disease.
He said treatments existed that could improve balance, walking and cognitive function that would negate their need to enter aged care, improving the flow of hospital patients to age care, freeing up hospital beds.
"Some of these people if they were assessed and diagnosed earlier, we could have prevented admission to residential homes, created more beds and facilitated more discharge of patients waiting in hospital to go to residential homes," he said.
If elected, Dr Razay said he would ensure patients with symptoms of INPH were tested and treated either through existing services, or by expanding services to age care facilities in the North, which could reduce patient occupancy.
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