Greens’ Nurse Practitioners Proposal adopted

West Coast to Receive Boost to Health Workforce

The Tasmanian Greens today welcomed the Minister for Health, Michelle O’Byrne MP, for announcing that she would be implementing the long time Greens policy of employing nurse practitioners to bolster health services on the west coast.

Greens Health spokesperson, Paul O’Halloran MP, initially questioned Ms O’Byrne about the revelation that Zeehan’s after-hours medical service had been cut before she announced the plan to start hiring nurse practitioners.

“The Minister confirmed that services have been downgraded and in response to the Greens’ recent lobbying, she today announced that she would be seeking to place nurse practitioners in both Strahan and Zeehan,” said Mr O’Halloran.

“This move has the potential to make a significant difference to the standard and accessibility of health care on the west coast and the Greens fully support the plan.”

“For some time I have been urging the Minister to consider health workforce diversification options such as wider use of nurse practitioners and introducing physician assistants.”

“Employing nurse practitioners will add an extra layer of strength and flexibility to our health workforce and I will continue to push for physician’s assistants to be considered for the same reasons.”

“We’ve won progress on nurse practitioners and we will now keep pursuing the introduction of physician’s assistants to bolster access to regional and rural health services,” Mr O’Halloran said.

Mr O’Halloran will be visiting Strahan in coming weeks and will host a public meeting in Strahan regarding health concerns of the community on Monday 9th September.
Paul O’Halloran MP Greens Health Spokesperson