Yesterday’s $7.2 million announcement will allow an estimated 900 additional procedures to be performed and will specifically target women who have waited the longest on the elective surgery waiting list for their procedures.
It will also provide better support for women not requiring surgery. This package has been welcomed, including by the AMA*, and will help to deliver many more surgeries.
I spoke to Dr O’Keefe last night and had a constructive discussion. The Government completely agrees that more beds need to be opened and that’s why we have a plan to deliver $757 million of new health funding to deliver almost 300 new beds, including 250 at the RHH.
The Hodgman Liberal Government has already opened more than 120 beds, we’ve put on more than 600 additional frontline health staff, and we are progressing the rebuild of the RHH, which will provide the physical space for more beds.
We have put more than $100 million of additional funding into elective surgery since 2014, and have driven waiting times to record lows. However, we know there is much more work to do in our health system, and we are committed to doing it.
Dr O’Keefe and his colleagues are quite rightly keen, as am I, to reduce the number of occasions elective surgery is delayed due to high demand in hospitals.
I’m advised the RHH delivered 569 surgeries in 2017-18 for gynaecology and gynaecological oncology, and that year to date we have delivered more surgery for gynaecology and gynaecological oncology patients at the RHH than the same period last year, with just four procedures postponed due to demand surges.
Of course we want to reduce those elective surgery delays and that’s why we’ve opened 120 beds since coming to Government and have allocated funding to open 300 more.
*https://ama.com.au/tas/tasmanian-womens-health-funding