Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens' Health spokesperson
The Joint Statement on Public Hospitals from all major Tasmanian health bodies shows the critical state of our public hospitals. It's clear there's no room left at the Royal Hobart Hospital for the predictable surge this winter flu season.
There is a coming winter crisis, and there needs to be more money for more beds. The Minister for Health, Michael Ferguson, also needs to sit down with health bodies and work with them on an emergency winter plan.
The Joint Statement provides a blueprint for the action needed to protect patients this winter.
It's not even winter, yet RHH staff already use cots and chairs for "beds" and still regularly run out of safe places to treat patients. This means patients have to wait dangerously long for life-saving treatment.
The Greens acknowledge the concern our major health bodies have shown by joining to work on this Public Hospitals Statement. It outlines the cuts in hospital beds from Royal Hobart Hospital during the rebuilding process, including the loss of a quarter of all acute mental health beds. These losses are the cause of regular chaos in Emergency and ambulance ramping.
The Joint Hospitals Statement paints an alarming picture of the coming winter flu season, and Minister Ferguson has to muster all possible resources so that patients don't die because they're not treated on time.