Don't hold the health care sector back - health over football

Ask a doctor working in cramped conditions in the emergency department at the Launceston General Hospital if the government should be spending $750m putting a roof over a stadium, so footy players don't get wet. 

Ask a nurse working double shifts if the government should be spending $750m on a sports stadium.  

Ask a GP who doesn't know what care their patient received in the hospital because the IT systems are so antiquated; they don't talk to each other, whether they think a $750m investment on an oval is a good spend of public money. 

AMA Tasmania has been calling on a significant investment in health for the past three years; an investment that would see the Royal Hobart Hospital master plan finished in five years, not thirty; an investment that would see $400m going into connecting the entire health system from the patient at home into their general practice escalating into hospitals and back again.  

It is not sensible to back recently announced plans by the government for a football stadium in Hobart when there are clear and urgent needs for investment in a desperate health system.

AMA Tasmania state President Dr Helen McArdle added, "now is not the right time for the state government to prioritise a commitment to spend $750m on a football team that will only play a handful of games in a season when it should be committed to many number of things across our health system including a new single site purpose-built hospital for the northwest." 

Keeping in mind that investment in building infrastructure that is warranted and needed still generates jobs in the construction sector.

The northwest coast has struggled to staff its two hospitals adequately for the past twenty years or more, but once the domain of the Royal Hobart Hospital and Launceston General Hospital, issues like bed block are now also issues at the Northwest Regional Hospital.  

We know the demand for services will only continue to grow in the northwest. We also know the best way to attract and retain staff is not by paying them less than their mainland counterparts, nor by asking them to work across two sites in older infrastructure, but to consolidate into one modern hospital where collegial support is stronger, where fewer on-call rosters are required and where more time can be invested in supporting the ongoing education of doctors-in-training. 

AMA Tasmania recognises that the decision to build a new hospital is not a politically easy one, but it is the right one.  

• Modern infrastructure: ready for any future pandemics  
• Modern Design: attraction and retention of staff  
• Mass of staff: collegial support, need for fewer locums, invest more in training.  
• Bring back public maternity services: consolidate all maternity services in the one location 
• Maintain a co-located Private Hospital: ensure a private hospital remains viable in the NW.  

The vision for one city in Tasmania must not come at the expense of another, especially when it comes at the cost of the health of Tasmanians.  

Scrap the stadium at Regatta Point arena plans Premier and give all the people of Tasmania what they need and deserve.>>>>ENDS.