Media release – Health and Community Services Union, 13 June 2024
More Tasmanians with mental illness will die due to government decision
The government’s decision to use vacancy control to cut staffing and services in mental health will mean more Tasmanians with mental illness will die.
We are already aware of preventable deaths that have occurred because of a lack of mental health services, and this is on the back of St Helens Private Hospital closing and regular issues at The Hobart Clinic.
For the Secretary to now set up a Vacancy Control Committee due to a deteriorating budget position indicates that this is probably more than just budget cuts (budget dividend) but also that they are over budget, meaning the cuts will have to go further.
Unfortunately, the system is set up on the need to use locums and agency nurses and health professionals because they fail to pay attractive wages to get permanent staff, so to withdraw these vital staff will be detrimental to patients and lead to adverse outcomes including deaths.
Attached is a memo which is no doubt the tip of the iceberg. Instead of planning to put more people with mental health in jail as part of their mandatory sentencing agenda, it would be far cheaper and safer for workers and community to actually provide decent mental health services.
It costs $561 a day to have someone in prison. If the Government had any sense, they would prioritise mental health if they wanted to save the budget money – but clearly they are not interested.
Barry Dee
June 14, 2024 at 19:16
It was a reasonable bet that the real motivation for galloping to an early election was the disastrous financial state that would have been exposed in the (now missing) May budget. Future generations of Tasmanians will look back at the abysmal management of the health budget, by both the major political parties, and despair at the missed opportunities!
Both parties have subsidised the forestry industry for decades, and it continues to run at a very expensive loss. The ‘spin’ says its all about jobs, but the industry doesn’t actually employ that many people. They would all be safer and happier if they were retrained to be Health care workers.
Who would miss the carnage that log trucks leave on the roads? Imagine if we redirected all the loss-generating subsidies towards the health care sector instead!
Liberal and Labor have the creativity and imaginations of goldfish! No new ideas – just the constant regurgitation of slogans from the last century before we noticed the planet was melting.