The Hodgman majority Liberal Government is focused on continuing to deliver our plan to build a better health system for all Tasmanians.
This is why we, along with Health Department senior executives, will continue dialogue with key employee representatives this week to better support health workers and ultimately provide the best level of care to the Tasmanian public.
We are working to address issues raised by doctors in training last week and I can confirm that a second overnight registrar will commence at the Royal Hobart Hospital tonight.
To ensure action was taken immediately, a locum doctors have has been engaged, with permanent recruitment to be progressed as a priority.
This is in addition to making 12 additional recruitment offers to junior doctors for 2020, as well as a range of other measures being pursued.
This close engagement between Departmental and hospital leaders together with junior doctors and the AMA will continue, with a further meeting expected to take place later this week.
The Department is also working closely to address issues raised by Ambulance Tasmania southern region health and safety representatives earlier this month.
The Secretary has been working on a plan to propose improvements and will meet again with staff later this week to work through suggested actions to help address the issues raised.
The previous meeting was extremely positive, and we look forward to building on that as we work to provide the safest possible workplace for our hardworking paramedics.
As a Government, we are spending more than $500 million more on health this year compared to six years ago.
This funding is supporting 1,150 FTE of additional staff for Tasmania’s health system - including over 600 FTE more nurses and 170 FTE more doctors.
We have also invested in Ambulance Tasmania, with more than 110 FTE extra paramedics and dispatch officers compared to five years ago.
This is a massive increase, and we need to make sure we continue to strive to get better patient outcomes for Tasmanians for every dollar we invest in health.
We are committed to a positive culture where every employee feels valued and empowered in their role of providing essential health services to the public.