A STATEMENT ON THE POSSIBLE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SINGLE TASMANIAN HEALTH ORGANISATION IN LAUNCESTON
I have learned this morning the Tasmanian Government is actively considering establishing a single state-wide health organisation based in Launceston.
Collapsing the current three Tasmanian Health Organisations into one is a good idea. But to contemplate basing it in Launceston would be an absurdity.
To base the new health organisation in Launceston would effectively disconnect the organisation from the state’s main hospital and the weight of clinical and tertiary health services which are obviously in Hobart. By implication there would be a further reduction in the delivery of health services to the entire Tasmanian population, which has already been poorly served by decades of poor political decision making.
To locate a single health organisation in Launceston would be parochialism gone mad. This is the Launceston mafia hijacking public health planning in Tasmania. In a state of only half a million people to continue to locate large chunks of the public health system in regional areas is patently ridiculous. All Tasmanians will enjoy better public healthcare with not only fewer, but also more sensibly located, public health structures and facilities.
There is also the important matter of the Health Minister’s personal conflict of interest. If he was to decide to put a single health organisation in his home town and own electorate, then that would be political pork barrelling on an industrial scale at the expense of good public health planning.
I call on the Premier and the Health Minister to rule out anything other than a single health organisation based in Hobart.
Andrew Wilkie MP, Independent Member for Denison
