Federal Government is failing to ease Tasmania’s health crisis

The issue is number one with voters and beset by policy failures at all levels, says Julie Collins

THIS weekend marks one year since last year’s Federal Election where the Turnbull Government famously lost all three of its seats in Tasmania.

Fed-up voters did not hesitate to say adios to the self-styled “Three Amigos”, with huge swings against the Liberal MPs across the state.

The Federal Liberals had comprehensively failed a key test of government — keeping Tasmanians healthy and ensuring access to health services.

The issue raised with candidates more than any other was our state’s health system, with voters volunteering the issue without prompting time and again.

No issue reaches into the lives of ordinary Tasmanians quite like health.

Most Tasmanians regularly interact with Tasmania’s health system either directly or through the experiences of loved ones.

And all the evidence — and those conversations with voters at the last election — indicated health was the reason why Tasmanians were prepared to turf the Three Amigos last year.

On a visit to the state in November 2016, Malcolm Turnbull said restoring Tasmanians’ trust in the public health system was critical.

Despite his grand statements, he has done little to fix it since. The sad truth is nothing has changed since the Federal Election. If anything, things have only gotten worse.

Tasmania’s health system is caught in an unrelenting crisis, with our state’s hospitals lurching from one disaster to another and out-of-pocket costs for GP visits higher than ever.

A week doesn’t go by without the release of more damning statistics on the state of our health system.

Tasmanians have the longest elective surgery wait times in the country, with the median wait time for Tasmanians blowing out by 30 days under the Federal Liberals.

Out-of-pocket costs are higher than they have ever been, with Tasmania experiencing a huge hike in GP out-of-pocket costs in the past year.

Just this week the people of the North and North-West lost their only full-time neurologist — a loss blamed squarely on the Hodgman Government failing to give adequate support.

Further, the Turnbull Government’s recent Federal Budget did nothing to fix these problems.

The Budget locked in the chronic underfunding of our state’s hospitals.

The Medicare freeze responsible for driving higher GP costs and forcing doctors to stop bulk billing is remaining in place across the health system for years to come.

Greg Hunt, who has been the Minister for Health since January this year, is yet to make a significant visit to Tasmania despite these issues.

In fact, the Minister, who is based in Melbourne, didn’t even travel to Tasmania to sign a new funding deal for the

Mersey Community Hospital.

It is remarkable the Turnbull Government has identified health as being such an important issue for Tasmania and yet has shown so little determination to change the situation or even consult with health care professionals in our state.

Malcolm Turnbull has either forgotten about the importance of the issue to Tasmanians or has written off winning back Tasmanian seats

I am proud that the united Federal Labor team, including the Three Amigos’ successors in Lyons, Braddon and Bass — Brian Mitchell, Justine Keay and Ross Hart — have stood up for our state’s health system. The issues have been compounded by a Liberal State Government that has failed to stand up to federal cuts and delivered huge cuts of their own.

The Hodgman Government now expects Tasmanians will simply forget about the waiting list blowouts and rolling crises at our state’s hospitals. The rosy picture the Hodgman Government would have us believe on health funding is nothing more than a front.

The funding included for health in the recent State Budget will not come close to covering the savage cuts that the Federal Liberal Government has already made to our hospitals and health system.

Tasmanian’s health care and allied health professionals do incredible work every day across our state but they are not being supported by State and Federal Liberal Governments.

All Labor offices are being contacted by people who are being told they need to wait much longer than the clinically recommended time for procedures, such as endoscopies and surgery.

It is clear the Liberal State and Federal Governments cannot fix our state’s ailing health system.

Give the State Liberal Government is likely to be at the polls before their Federal counterparts, it shouldn’t be surprising if voters across the state soon say ‘adios’ to them as well.