The Royal Hobart Hospital Rescue Taskforce has already proven its worth by identifying $2 million in savings which will now be available for the major part of the redevelopment, the inpatient precinct.
This is already significantly more than the total expected cost of the taskforce administration.
It's a bit rich of Labor to question the cost of this taskforce when the Executive Director for the project, appointed under Labor's watch, was paid at a rate of $2,150 per day, with a further 4 team members appointed by the former Government earning between $1,700 and $1,850 for every day worked.
Under Labor and the Greens the RHH redevelopment was facing a budget overrun of up $70 million and a potential delay of two years. The greatest concern identified by the new Government was patient risk due to the unacceptable plan to decant acute care patients away from the site.
The taskforce identified that, as of April 1 2014, only seven elements of the 35-element decant plan were on, or under, budget. The other 28 were either over budget or totally undefined.
More than $1 million was spent on refurbishment works for the ill-fated decant plan, including more than $200,000 on design works to decant the Roy Fagan Centre. This centre no longer appears on any decant plan for any proposed hospital redevelopment.
This is more than $200,000 of Labor-Green waste and another example of the right royal mess the former Government left the project in.
This is in addition to approximately $7 million wasted earlier in the project on multiple unnecessary design changes.
This taskforce is doing the essential work of rescuing the Royal Hobart Hospital redevelopment. It's certainly a shame that the project needed rescuing – but this is the mess left by the Labor Party which the new government is cleaning up with expert professional support.
The Liberal Government is committed to rescuing the Royal Hobart Hospital and delivering the healthcare system Tasmanians need and deserve.