Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Health spokesperson
The Tasmanian Greens are proud to sponsor the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s parliamentary petition about our state’s deepening health crisis.
With the worst-ever statistics for emergency departments, the endless wait for elective surgery, and lack of timely access to healthcare, the Tasmanian health system is under terrible pressure.
After seven years of cuts in health investments, the Liberals say they’ve finally seen the light and are taking action. But there has been no concrete commitment to fill the hundreds of nurse and midwife vacancies around the state, or to take the other measures needed to stem the unsafe shortage of staff.
Healthcare staff are going beyond all workplace expectations, trying to give patients the best care possible in an overstretched system. But they aren’t miracle workers, and patients are inevitably being placed at risk by resourcing failures.
Given the serious ongoing issues in Tasmania’s hospitals, and the harrowing accounts we’ve heard from healthcare staff across the country, the projected COVID cases following our open borders are understandably a grave concern for many.
Nurses and midwives are doing amazing work. They’re being let down by a government which is more interested in appearing to be doing something than actually improving the health system.
We encourage all Tasmanians to support this important petition, and call on the Government to take notice.
The petition is available here: https://bit.ly/Health-Petition