Today I had the pleasure of officially opening the inaugural “Sustainable Healthcare Transformation” conference being held in Hobart.
The conference has been organised by Health Services Innovation Tasmania, a Commonwealth-funded centre of the University of Tasmania.
It has brought together clinicians, health service and hospital managers, health policy makers and educators and researchers from all over the world to discuss the benefits of developing more innovative ways of providing clinical care.
At a time when Tasmania is facing up to the challenges of improving our health system, it is important to acknowledge and understand that governments and health systems around the world are facing many of the same challenges.
The difficulties facing the public health system in dealing with growing demand and constrained resources in a safe and effective manner are acknowledged as a challenge to be confronted worldwide.
In opening the conference I outlined the Tasmanian Government’s commitment to rethink and redesign the way our health service works, based on the type of best practice clinical research and advice that the Sustainable Healthcare Transformation will help to foster.
We are very fortunate in Tasmania to have HSI Tas based in the state. Their expertise will play an important role in providing independent health system research in Tasmania as we look to achieve our goal of making Tasmanian the healthiest state in Australia by 2025.
Hosting this international conference is an important part of HSI Tas becoming recognised as a national and international leader in health services training and research innovation.
I congratulate HSI Tas and the University of Tasmania for putting together this conference and bringing together such a wide array of speakers and presenters from across the world.
Michael Ferguson, Minister for Health
