Will Hodgman is leaving Tasmanian communities with little or no ambulance coverage and ignoring desperate pleas from hard-working paramedics.
In Question Time today, Will Hodgman failed to answer serious questions about chronic under-resourcing of ambulances services in Tasmania.
Shadow Health Minister Sarah Lovell said almost every day we are hearing devastating stories of ambulances being tied up on the ramps of our major hospitals, leaving communities with little or no coverage.
On July 25 a very sick patient needed to be transferred from Queenstown to the LGH. That meant the patient had to wait around 90 minutes for an intensive care paramedic to come across from the North West coast. This left the entire West Coast from New Norfolk to Smithton, without ambulance coverage. The patient then had to be transferred by road, late at night to the LGH.
In the following week, only one ambulance was left servicing the entire north of the state.
"People are already dying needlessly in Will Hodgman's under resourced hospitals and health system.
"After Will Hodgman's razor gang has its way the situation can only get worse.
"The Government has failed to quarantine health from his $450 million budget cuts, despite experts telling Mr Hodgman that any cuts – to either the frontline or the back line – will hurt patients and health professionals.
"Will Hodgman's chaotic, dysfunctional government is determined to further damage our health system and they don't even seem to care."
Sarah Lovell MP
Shadow Health Minister
