The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to fixing our broken health system.
The draft White Paper outlines a proposed system redesign which is not about saving money, but getting better health outcomes for Tasmanians.
The Clinical Services Profile in the draft outlines how one statewide Tasmanian health system can be safely and sustainably structured so we can do better in health within our existing resources.
The Launceston General Hospital, like all of our hospitals, will have a vital role to play in a single statewide health system delivering better health care for Tasmanians.
The exposure draft of the White Paper recommends that the Launceston General Hospital can deliver a range of clinical services at a higher level than currently occurs.
There is the demand across North and North West Tasmania for the Launceston General Hospital to expand its capacity to deliver a higher level of endocrinology, infectious diseases, neurology, respiratory diseases, rheumatology and pain management, oral health, and Children and Adolescent Mental Health to patients across both regions.
The LGH is currently set up to provide these services at moderate complexity, but the White Paper proposes that the LGH can safely deliver these services for cases with a medium to high level of complexity.
Under the current regionally-divided health system, the LGH has been operated separately from the North West Regional Hospital and Mersey Community Hospital in the North West.
With the three THOs merging to become one single statewide Tasmanian Health Service from July 1 this year, all will work together much more closely, each delivering services for patients across North and North West Tasmania according to their specific capability.
This will see a Northern Integrated Cancer Service operating and staffing both the Holman Clinic in Launceston and the new North West Cancer Centre in Burnie.
It will also mean that many of the specialists based at the LGH will regularly visit patients on the North West to eliminate much of the travel for patients in that region to Launceston or Hobart for specialist clinics, consultations and pre and post-operative care.
A number of more complex surgical procedures which have previously been performed at the North West Regional Hospital will now be performed at the LGH where clinical evidence shows higher volumes of procedures means less adverse events and better outcomes for patients.
As the White Paper outlines, strengthening and improving travel and accommodation support is an important part of this process and we will be working closely with stakeholders and the community on this issue as the White Paper is finalised over the next three months.