The anger at those health cuts. A GP’s view

Tasmanian Greens have completed a fact-finding tour of the state’s three main hospitals, to hear directly how the announced health budget cuts will impact on services.

Greens Health spokesperson Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP toured the North-West Regional Hospital and Launceston General Hospitals earlier this month, and completed his tour yesterday with a visit to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Mr O’Halloran said it was clear many health workers were worried and angry about the cuts, and wanted a clearer plan that would provide secure, long-term funding for Tasmania’s health system.

“Talking to those at the coal face about the budget challenges, I was very impressed by their can-do spirit in the face of these major challenges.”

“It’s been useful to learn exactly how the current cuts are intended to be delivered, and it has also clearly highlighted the need for a pathway to a better future with a more sustainable, resilient health system.”

“Health inflation is running at three times the rate of general inflation and at current rates it will consume the entire State Budget by 2025, which makes obvious the need for a long-term plan to bring down costs.”

“There is no doubt that these cuts are causing significant concern amongst health workers and within the broader community, with many people unhappy that to them it appears that services are being cut over other potential savings areas such as bureaucracy and waste,” Mr O’Halloran said.

“The Greens have consistently called for greater emphasis on preventative care and early intervention. This first step is good health policy, and also makes sound economic sense.”

“We also need to invest in breaking free of this crisis management driven cycle, in which money is wasted in the boom times then slashed in lean times.”

“A long term plan to bring down health costs, which eliminates the waste and addresses the need for preventative healthcare and early intervention is the way forward, and future health funding options are crucial in that mix,” said Mr O’Halloran.

• Kim Booth: Health funding should not be a political football
Long Term Service Level And Funding Arrangements Are What Community Needs

Kim Booth MP
Greens Member for Bass
Saturday, October 29 2011

The Tasmanian Greens told today’s community health rally in Launceston, organised by the Health and Community Services Union, that the state’s health system needed short-term health care politics replaced with long-term, a-political, health-focused solutions.

Greens Member for Bass, Kim Booth MP, said he welcomed the chance to address the rally to reiterate what the Greens have always said, that preventative health strategies, as well as sustainable long-term health policies, including letting health care professionals do their job, was what Tasmania’s health system needed.

“The Greens are as horrified as anyone about cuts to health care budgets, however, it is equally untenable that the health care budget would end up swallowing the state’s entire budget, without preventative action,” said Mr Booth.

“Over the years, the Greens have been the only party that has opposed the massive waste of public money on the pulp mill, forestry, the expensive Aurora Tamar valley Gas Power Station, to name a few, and we have warned that budget cuts would follow. The same is true for health care.”

“The unions, political parties, lobby groups and stakeholders and the media need to accept some responsibility for allowing health funding to become an auction for votes at election time. It might work for newspaper headlines and short-termist cynical politicians but it utterly fails the community. Exploiting health for political gain is something the Greens have never done and never will.”

“Unfortunately, today we saw more of the same – the unions and the Liberals cynically whipping up this issue for their own political game but without any providing any solutions.”

“I was extremely disappointed only last week in Parliament that the Liberals, true to form, voted against the Greens’ motion that would have set up a Commission to examine putting preventative health into practice.”

“The Greens are also at pains to listen, which is why our Health spokesperson, Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP, last week toured Tasmania’s three main hospitals to front up and listen to health care professionals on the front line.”

“Paul O’Halloran will also be holding a stakeholder forum to look at the issue of Federal funding for our health system.”

“I want to make it clear that I am not happy about the health budget and its effect on front line services. Even though health isn’t my portfolio, it is clear that medical professionals have concerns about how and where budget cuts are being applied.”

“The Greens will continue to do everything we can to lobby the Health Minister, Michelle O’Byrne MP, to make sure the necessary health savings are directed away from the front lines.”

“Federal funding and a rapid and wide-ranging consultation with health care stakeholders and the community are what we need now to take the politics out of our health system so we don’t have to face these sort of health budget cuts again,” said Mr Booth.

First published: 2011-10-29 02:10 PM