Health dashboard update 15 January

Sarah Courtney,Minister for Health

The health, safety and wellbeing of Tasmanians remains the Tasmanian Government’s number one priority as we continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuild.

The Health Dashboard update released today shows the continued demand for health services in Tasmania, including on hospital waiting lists, following a period where service delivery was disrupted by actions taken to respond to and prepare our hospitals for COVID-19.

During the September quarter, Tasmania’s Emergency Departments were busy, with 39,294 people presenting for care, including 16,842 at the Royal Hobart Hospital, 10,883 from the Launceston General Hospital, 4,547 at the Mersey Community Hospital and 7,022 at the North West Regional Hospital.

We also saw 4,268 Tasmanians admitted for elective surgery during the September quarter, including 1,835 from the Royal Hobart Hospital waiting list, 1,538 from the Launceston General Hospital, 400 from the Mersey Community Hospital and 495 from the North West Regional Hospital.

We expect additional surgeries to be performed this year, thanks to a $45.5 million injection into elective surgery over the next 18 months, on top of the $15 million federal funding commitment we negotiated to bring forward. This funding will allow our system to deliver an estimated 8,500 additional surgeries, over and above our ordinary volume surgeries, and while these are rolled out we will continue to provide whatever support we can for Tasmanian patients.

It’s important for Tasmanians to know that we are taking action to address health demand, by investing a record $9.8 billion in the health budget over the next four years to recruit frontline staff, invest in our hospitals, and deliver more care.

There have been more than 1,500 FTE additional staff recruited since 2014, and we’ve opened new beds across the State.

Tasmanians can be assured we will continue to work hard on delivering health services, including for those who had their care impacted by the pandemic.

We thank our hardworking health workers for their significant efforts in supporting and caring for Tasmanians during a year that threw up a number of unique challenges in our health system.

The latest Healthstats Dashboard can be found here: https://www.healthstats.dhhs.tas.gov.au/healthsystem

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