Push to revamp health service

THE Australian Medical Association has called for wideranging changes to the Tasmania Health Service because of a failure to deliver stable management.

The AMA wants urgent action to abolish the THS Governing Council, the statewide THS Executive and statewide THS chief executive officer roles.

“The self-governed model has failed to recognise the need for engaged regional healthcare leadership and has proven ineffective in managing the service complexity that arises as a result of Tasmania’s decentralised population,” AMA president Stuart Day said.

In December, Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the Liberals would legislate to remove THS chief executive David Alcorn and the nineperson council to give the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services ultimate responsibility for the THS by July. The move came in response to an adverse findings in a Deloitte investigation into the state’s health system.

The AMA is seeking the oversight of Tasmania’s public health services be done by the Department of Health and Human Services.

It wants two Area Health Networks (one Southern and one Northern) established to manage hospitals and community health services.

Labor policy agrees that the THS should be changed.

The AMA has called for a co-located private hospital next to the Launceston General Hospital.

Labor has pledged to hand over public land to facilitate a Calvary proposal for a $200 million private hospital.

Mr Ferguson said there would be no handover of public land.

“We are aware of the AMA position and will have more to say on health later in the campaign,” he said. “If we put more of the existing funding into health it would mean cuts to police, education and provision of services to Tasmania’s most vulnerable.”