The Hodgman Liberal Government will immediately move to employ a medical specialist, supported by a triage nurse and paramedics, in the State Operations Centre to ease pressure on our hospitals.
This comes on the back of the Ambulance Tasmania (AT) review released in June, which showed that in some areas of Tasmania more than 40 per cent of transported patients are non-acute and do not require transport to hospital.
The new positions will commence this month and be based in the call centre to triage calls and ensure ambulances are prioritised to the highest need.
Secondary triage will ensure that patients not requiring emergency intervention or transport to an emergency department will be referred to an appropriate health service, keeping paramedic resources available for emergency calls.
The positions help to better identify cases for our Extended Care Paramedics that provide support and advice, undertake call-backs to low acuity cases and help direct low acuity cases to General Practice and other providers where appropriate.
Extended Care Paramedics, introduced by this Government, play an important role taking pressure off our hospitals and providing better care for patients. Last financial year they responded to more than 2100 call-outs across Tasmania.
This will be a pilot program as we develop the secondary triage system.
The Government has adopted the recommendations of the review in full, including:
The new positions are a response to the review that also found that almost 15 per cent of patients transported to an emergency department had a diagnosis that could be managed by either a paramedic, a community nurse and/or a general practitioner.
As previously announced, two new paramedic crews in Hobart and Launceston are the in final stages of appointment and will help ease pressure on our hospitals.
Addressing needs in Ambulance Tasmania is all part of our Plan to Build Your Future and that is why we’ve set some bold new health targets including reducing emergency ambulance response times to national average waiting time by 2025, 90 per cent of Tasmanians to be treated within clinically recommended time frames for their elective surgery by the end of the next term of Government, and for 90 per cent to be in and out of the emergency department within four hours, by 2022.
The Hodgman Government worked hard to get the Budget back on track and with record investment in health, these measures will directly help Tasmanians and ease pressure on our hospitals.