Mersey cardiac diversion adds pressure to system already stretched to the limit
The Tasmanian Government’s decision to divert complex cardiac patients presenting by ambulance in northwest Tasmania to the Launceston General Hospital instead of the Mersey Community Hospital is placing northern Tasmania’s stretched health system under even more pressure.
The practice leaves the north-west without ambulance crews for extended periods, and leaves patients having to find their own way home from Launceston to the north west.
It also raises serious concerns regarding the increased number of patients that will now be presenting at the LGH Emergency Department, with paramedics reporting the majority of calls theyrespond to in the north-west being for chest pain.
Paramedics and staff at the Mersey have expressed concern that the chaos at the LGH over the last week and a bit has been exacerbated by this pilot.
The six-month ‘Mersey Community Hospital Complex Cardiac Diversion Pilot’ commenced 29 June 2026.
No one is disputing that Tasmanians need quicker access to the health care they need.
But Health Minister Bridget Archer’s non-solution just shifts the pressure from one under-resourced frontline to another.
After 13 years of Liberal waste, Tasmania’s hospitals are under immense pressure, with patients at the LGH being given doorbells last week because there were no beds available.
Tasmanians deserve better, but all they’re going to get from a Liberal Government that simply does not care is $700 million in cuts from a health system already at breaking point.
