Minister MIA amid health crisis: ALP

HEALTH Minister Sarah Courtney has been accused by Labor of being missing in action as the hospital crisis rages.

Opposition health spokeswoman Sarah Lovell said Ms Courtney had not fronted the media for almost a month.

“We’ve got a Health Minister who is nowhere to be seen, we haven’t heard from her in a number of days, she’s not fronted the Tasmanian public to talk about any of the crises in health over the last couple of weeks,” Ms Lovell said.

“In fact, in September, she told us that everything was improving, that the Access Solutions meeting strategy had been implemented and that things are improving.

“What we now know is that at the very same time that the Government was telling us everything was improving — the college ( ACEM) was collecting data that showed quite the opposite. And we now know that we have two of the worst performing hospitals in the country.”

Australasian College of Emergency Medicine said the results of the latest access block snapshot for the state’s major hospitals should also prompt a clean-out of hospital management.

The college’s most recent emergency department surveys, one taken on June 3 and one on September 2, show the Royal Hobart Hospital and Launceston General Hospital recorded the worst results of all hospitals in Australia for patient access block and 24-hour wait times.

ACEM president Simon Judkins yesterday said the blame did not lie with Ms Courtney but rather with the senior leadership within the state’s major hospitals.

“The change which needs to be addressed is not who is the Health Minister,” he said.

“The change we are calling for is the medical leadership culture within RHH or the fractured ‘medical leadership’.

“Good people being undermined by a few who support inaction/status quo.”

Ms Courtney said Labor wasn’t helping.

“It is once again disappointing that Labor continue to play politics with health rather than put forward a positive plan of their own.

“Labor is always quick to point out the problems, which does nothing to improve how our hospitals are working and only serves to undermine our community’s confidence in our health system.”

She said she acknowledged ACEM’s comments around the need to improve culture and processes and had asked the department secretary to consider the college’s recommendations. She said she would meet the college this week.