Premier
and part-time Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff has failed at the first hurdle in
his claim that he withdrew from his New Zealand trade mission to focus on
fixing the crisis in the health system.
If
Mr Rockliff was genuine and serious about focusing his energies on the broken
hospital system, his first priority would have been to come to the table with
nurses to negotiate a way forward.
Instead
he has failed and nursing staff will stage a strike action at the Launceston
General Hospital on Wednesday.
Industrial
action is a last resort for our exhausted, overworked and underpaid frontline
health staff but they have been left with no option by Mr Rockliff’s weak
leadership.
The
Premier now has less than two days to make an effort to “focus on the current
challenges within our health system” as he said at the weekend.
But there appears to be no genuine plan to deal with unprecedented pressure in Tasmania’s hospitals as Mr Rockliff fails to get the basics right.
Anita Dow MP
Shadow Health Minister
