"MediHotels" have been a disaster interstate. In Victoria hospital beds have closed to make MediHotels there viable.
Ms White must come clean and tell Tasmanians how many beds Labor plans to close to make their MediHotel blunder stack up here.
And more importantly, where will they close beds?
I hold great concern that our rural hospitals, like those at Oatlands, New Norfolk, Scottsdale, Smithton and Dover will be put at risk under Labor and lose beds so sick patients can be transferred to inner-city hotels.
Labor don’t want any new hospital beds – they want hotel rooms for sick Tasmanians.
Rebecca White has taken a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach from Labor’s interstate PR firm and adopted a WA election policy where MediHotels are expected to operate at a profit.
Their hotel plan has a lot of ‘Wot-Ifs’ that need to be answered, including how much will beds and nursing staff cost and will patients have to foot the bill.
A Victorian Government report found it was costing more to keep people in the Royal Melbourne MediHotel than the actual hospital.
On just about every level MediHotels is a bad idea – it will jeopardise hospital beds and see ambulances acting as taxis.
Unlike Labor, the Hodgman Liberal Government has a clear plan to ensure Tasmanians get the care they need sooner – it revolves around opening up more hospital beds, not closing them.