The latest health Dashboard shows the Hodgman Liberal Government is making important improvements to our health system as demand continues.
Despite steady growth in Emergency Department presentations, there has been the highest number of Tasmanians leaving within four hours since 2017 which is good news.
It is clear our additional funding, particularly the $5 million investment in the Royal Hobart Hospital Emergency Department, is making a difference and helping to get more Tasmanians seen in a timely fashion.
The Oral Health waiting list is now almost 1,000 lower than in May 2018. This a huge improvement and we want to see continued downward trends in this area. It also shows our investments in key facilities is paying off, including our capacity increase at the New Town Oral Health Facility, for example.
The elective surgery waiting list growth has stabilised, despite demand continuing to increase. The Hodgman Liberal Government has made significant investment in elective surgery with over $100 million of additional funding for elective surgery since 2014, including almost $25 million for elective surgery this financial year.
Ambulance response times continue to be within normal ranges despite increased numbers of dispatches and we will be building on our ambulance capacity in the coming months – with paramedics for Wynyard, St Helens, Bicheno, Dodges Ferry and Deloraine under our 42 rural and regional paramedic funding.
Every three months the Labor plays petty politics about the release of these statistics. The fact is, the Hodgman Liberal Government is releasing data sets that the Labor-Green Government fought tooth and nail to keep hidden.
The validated data we are releasing shows that, unlike Labor, we're actually serious about improving our health system.
We will continue to invest record amounts into health so we can open more beds, recruit more staff and build the facilities our health system needs to expand.