Four months into the role of Health Minister, Sarah Courtney has failed to make any real progress towards fixing the crisis in Tasmania's hospitals and health system.
Shadow Health Minister, Sarah Lovell, said after yet another horror week in health, Tasmanians were no closer to seeing some action, let alone any kind of vision or plan from the Government.
"Four months on and Sarah Courtney has done nothing to deliver her plan to fix the mess left by her predecessor Michael Ferguson," Ms Lovell said.
"We still have patients dying unnecessarily while waiting for the care they need in our hospitals, we still have severe ambulance ramping and the number of people waiting for surgery has blown out to almost 10 thousand.
"This week we saw statistics from the Department of Health annual report which revealed hospitals are drastically incapable of meeting their own performance targets.
"We also heard from the Director of Emergency Medicine at the Royal Hobart Hospital, Dr Emma Huckerby, who revealed that 1800 admitted patients waited more than 24 hours for a bed in the Royal Hobart hospital last year.
"Then there's the lengthy delays and serious issues surrounding the Royal Hobart Hospital redevelopment and the latest debacle where construction dust has damaged around $1 million worth of new communications equipment.
"The list of critical issues facing our hospitals and health system continues to grow while Sarah Courtney and Will Hodgman sit back and watch it all unfold.
"The Government has systematically underfunded health for over half a decade and things will only get worse under the Government's $450 million budget cuts.
"Sarah Courtney must stand up to the Premier and Treasurer, listen to the experts and the community and reverse the Government's callous health cuts before more lives are lost."
Sarah Lovell MLC
Shadow Health Minister
