Health Minister still hasn’t finalised RHH decant plan

Health Minister Michael Ferguson is rapidly backtracking on two claims he made about Tasmania’s health system.

Shadow Health Minister Rebecca White said the Minister’s claim of a “fully costed” decant plan for the Royal Hobart Hospital is severely in question.

“Clinicians are concerned the psychiatric intensive care unit and the paediatric unit will be located on the same level,” Ms White said.

“Clearly the decant plan is far from finalised which mean claims it is fully costed cannot be true. How can you cost something when you don’t know what it is yet?

“The timeline for the redevelopment is at risk of pushing out even further if the Minister can’t finalise the decant plan for the RHH

“The Health Minister is getting a track record for prematurely declaring success.

“Before work had restarted on the redevelopment, Mr Ferguson was claiming he’d ‘saved the Royal’.”

The Health Minister has also opened the door on spending additional money on the Government’s proposed reforms.

“Clinicians have told us that additional ICU beds will be needed at the Royal and the Launceston General Hospital,” Ms White said.

“Michael Ferguson did not rule out committing additional money to the reform this morning, despite previously stating the reform would be funded from internal savings.

“The Minister for Health needs to get his story straight.”
Rebecca White MP Shadow Health Minister