Time to heed the alarm from within

ONE of the most remarkable things about Health Minister Michael Ferguson is his unfailing public optimism.

Time after time, often despite the most flagrant evidence to the contrary, Mr Ferguson smiles broadly and puts a positive spin on the state of the health system.

It should be clear to any unbiased observer that rather than being a glass-half-full approach, Mr Ferguson’s pofaced insistence that everything that can be done is being done is nothing less than a wilful denial of reality.

Can anyone claim they are not aware of the depth of our state’s health crisis?

The Royal Hobart Hospital has been operating on a level-four crisis footing for days now, off and on for months. Ambulances are ramped daily. Emergency rooms are full to overflowing.

Sue Hickey’s opinion piece in today’s Mercury is an alarm sounding loudly from within the Government. In her article, she lays it out in black and white that action is needed, and now.

Her call that the Government embrace the truth of the need for more funding will ruffle feathers.

“… the last big publicity event of an investment into health of $105 million was no more than changing the estimate to reflect already spent funds. There was no new money,” she writes.

Ms Hickey has made clear her desire to find ways to better resolve long-running issues through a more consultative and more tripartisan approach. Her suggestion for a roundtable approach to the problem, led by the Premier, has merit.

It will mean listening to Ms Hickey — and to the opposition parties, and to staff and to patients, their families and the public.

It will mean unlocking the purse strings. It will mean an end to hoping the completion of the RHH redevelopment will take the political sting out of the issue. It will mean an end to the spin and false optimism.

It needn’t be a sign that Mr Ferguson is not up to the job, it is a sign that the job — and its problems — are more than one man can fix.