Great deal for health care system

A long-term Hobart Private lease is good news for patients,

MOST people probably don’t realise it, but the Hobart Private Hospital is one of the biggest employers in Hobart.

We employ more than 550 people, including more than 350 nurses. More than 350 consulting doctors work in the hospital. So every day, we have about 1250 people committed to providing Tasmanians with the best possible care.

Each year we treat more than 23,500 patients and perform about 14,000 procedures, fulfilling an integral and vital part of Tasmania’s health system.

That’s why the new inprinciple long-term lease agreement struck between Healthscope and the Tasmanian Government for the lease of the Hobart Private Hospital is such a great outcome. It will mean improved service delivery, and better co-ordination and integration with the adjacent Royal Hobart Hospital.

Given the certainty provided by the new lease, Healthscope is able to plan for the future. This will mean increased capital investment and greater capacity to recruit and retain health professionals such as nurses and doctors.

Most importantly, by working closely with the public system, as this new agreement locks in, we can directly assist to take pressure off the public health system.

A key aspect of this is the Emergency Department at the Hobart Private.

As the relatively new general manager of the hospital, I’m pleased to say the Emergency Department has been consistently open for the past two months, on minimal bypass.

One of the key aspects of the new lease agreement is that Emergency at the Hobart Private will remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This will without doubt take some pressure off the Emergency Department at the Royal Hobart Hospital, which like all hospitals in the public system is under pressure from massively increased demand.

Although for anyone considering attending, it’s important to remember that as we aren’t part of the public health system, there is a fee for attending the Hobart Private Emergency Department.

We are making a significant difference to our community. Over the past 12 months, more than 90 per cent of our patients have rated their overall treatment and care either as good or very good, the two highest rankings.

With such good news as a result of the new lease, it is unfortunate that there has been some ill-informed commentary. Claims the Government has somehow “gifted” the lease to operate the Hobart Private Hospital to Healthscope are completely false.

The Tasmanian Government ran a rigorous and independent tender process, which took over six months, and which involved seven initial interested entities, with three (including us) selected to progress to the final assessment process.

We worked very hard to put together what we regarded as a compelling proposal, which included increased capital investment and improved co-ordination with the Royal Hobart Hospital.

While the exact lease figure is commercial-in-confidence, to be perfectly clear, Healthscope is paying the Government to lease the Hobart Private buildings, they aren’t paying us, as wrongly asserted by some.

There’s also been some speculation about the lease period — so to be clear, the lease is for at least 10 years, with discussions ongoing about a longer lease period.

Healthscope is one of Australia’s leading private healthcare providers, and operates 43 hospitals, around Australia, with 18,000 employees. It remains an Australian headquartered company, based in Melbourne.

Employing more than 550 people directly and supporting hundreds more consulting health professionals provides massive support and stimulus to the Hobart economy.

At the Hobart Private we are proudly local with a proudly local and highly skilled team of health professionals.

We have served the Tasmanian community as the operator of the Hobart Private Hospital for 20 years, and we are very proud that after a competitive tender process we will continue to do so well into the future.