A peak health body is worried Tasmania’s public health system won’t receive enough support in Thursday’s state budget to address ballooning demand.
Health remains a major challenge, with a $400 million blowout in the last financial year.Hospitals struggling to meet demand fear more cuts, with the Australian Medical Association wanting long-term solutions and for hospitals to have a greater say in how the money is spent.
With an interim state budget to be handed down on Thursday, a peak health body fears Tasmania’s public health system won’t receive enough support to address ballooning demand. Government policies to rein in spending — such as staff vacancy controls and efficiency measures — are already affecting service delivery, according to the Australian Medical Association . AMA Tasmania president Dr Michael Lumsden-Steel said staff were “delaying decisions about anything that might cost money”.While Dr Lumsden-Steel said this budget was “critical” for health, he had little hope of it having anything other than short-term supports — or it may even introduce cuts — after Treasurer Eric Abetz foreshadowedDr Lumsden-Steel said funding problems were not unique to Tasmania’s health system. “We’ve got each state with massive budget problems, we’re seeing each state having massive health budget and healthcare delivery problems,”The AMA says a “command and control structure” is running health care in Tasmania.Treasury’s Preliminary Outcomes Report in August showed a net operating balance of $1.2 billion in the 2024-25 financial year, with net debt reaching $5.04 billion. The main blowouts have been in the Health Department, with a $400 million overspend largely on staff, including locums.”A comprehensive program of works, including with thewill support our responsible, considered and measured management of every single taxpayer dollar,” Mr Abetz said when releasing the report. Treasury’s Pre-election Financial Outlook, released in June, warned that Tasmania’s debt was headed for $13 billion by 2027-28, and called for “immediate and sustained” corrective action.) Labor’s health spokesperson, Sarah Lovell, said the government needed to look at the best way to spend the health budget. “It doesn’t mean they need to necessarily spend more in health, but they need to spend their money better. We need to be delivering better outcomes,” Ms Lovell said. Dr Lumsden-Steel said he wanted to see long-term solutions and a more strategic budget that considered hospitals’ demand. “When the health department gets a budget, that budget is not based on what the health department needs, it’s purely based on what the government can afford,” Dr Lumsden-Steel said.”We’re seeing departments running hospitals, not hospitals running hospitals with the support of departments.”Three months into her role as health minister, Bridget Archer is under pressure to address long ambulance wait times and a growing elective surgery waitlist, which is currently at 9,275 — a 14 per cent increase in the past 12 months. Bridget Archer has called on the federal government to provide more funding for Tasmania’s hospitals.Ms Archer has called on the federal government to do more, saying Tasmania would be more than $670 million worse off under”The federal government is asking Tasmania, and asking all of the states, to reduce their health demand, but they are not providing us with the resources that we need, or the tools that we need, to reduce the demand in the first place,” Ms Archer said.said it was already providing the state government more than enough.
Budget Tasmania Bridget Archer Eric Abetz Sarah Lovell Mini Budget Elective Surgery Hospital Royal Hobart Hospital Launceston General Hospital North West Regional Hospital
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