The AMA criticises National Cabinet's extension of COVID-19 hospital funding as insufficient

AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid said the funding extension was a "critical first step" but that it would not fix "a decade of hospital underfunding".

"This short extension will not see us through the hospital crisis, nor through COVID, nor through the additional pent-up demand from two years of lockdowns," Dr Khorshid said.

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He said the 50-50 funding arrangement should be made permanent, the 6.5 per cent growth cap on federal hospital funding be scrapped, and further funds provided for capacity expansion at public hospitals.

The current funding arrangement, originally set to expire in September this year, requires the federal government to pay 50 per cent of new costs, up from 45 per cent.

The AMA have said they want states to re-invest the freed-up 5 per cent into improving hospital performance.

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Mr Khorshid also said telehealth appointments needed to continue past their roll back date of July 1 as COVID cases remained persistently high.

Daily COVID case numbers are still in the high hundreds in Tasmania, with over 30,000 being reported nationally.

The extra three months of funding will cost the federal government $760 million.

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