Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Health spokesperson
The Tasmanian Health Service’s advice to the public yesterday that people not suffering from a life-threatening condition should stay away from the Launceston General Hospital Emergency Department is another shocking example of the Liberals’ failures on health.
When Tasmanians are suffering from illness or injury, they should be able to attend our hospital emergency departments and access timely care and treatment. But the situation at the LGH has yet again highlighted that’s not the case under the Liberals.
This government has neglected health for close to a decade, and we’re seeing distressing new record sets for poor outcomes across the system. In the last two months alone we’ve seen the worst results ever recorded for ambulance response times, and for time spent by patients waiting in emergency rooms.
The Premier advising Tasmanians to see their GP rather than going to hospital is shamefully out of touch – does he not understand people are waiting for weeks on end to see their doctor? And does he not realise that even patients with life-threatening conditions are facing significantly increased wait times?*
Seeing a dozen ambulances ramped outside the LGH was once unthinkable – but under the Liberals it has become an all too common occurrence. The tragic potential consequences of ramping were highlighted by the death of a woman while ramped at the LGH earlier this year.
The Rockliff Government has its priorities all wrong, with their continued focus on spending $750 million of public funds on an unnecessary third stadium, rather than critical health services.
Despite the Premier’s attempt to pretend otherwise, Tasmania’s health crisis continues to deepen. We have seen nothing from Jeremy Rockliff to suggest he really understands the need to take ambitious and urgent action on health – and anything less is simply not good enough.
*Only 44% of patients with an ‘imminently life-threatening condition’, and 37% of patients with a ‘potentially life-threatening condition’ are being seen within clinically recommended timeframes in Tasmanian hospitals.