Health Minister Guy Barnett must start taking responsibility for the state’s broken health system and stop blaming the Federal government.
Dashboard data released yesterday shows that more Tasmanians are needing medical assistance than before with ambulance response times and those presenting at our emergency departments continuing to blow out under the Rockliff minority Government.
Ambulance response times have crept up to 15 minutes and the rate of emergency response incidents have risen to 3960, while ambulance dispatches have increased to 10,683.
We’ve got more people presenting at our emergency departments than before, which is putting incredible strain on our hardworking health professionals.
A huge number of people (58,160) are waiting months past the clinically recommended timeframes to get an outpatient appointment to see a specialist before they are moved to wait on the elective surgery waitlist (8249).
Just this week we have heard about access block and ramping being distressingly common at our public hospitals, with staff morale at an all-time low.
Minister Barnett continues to claim these issues are the responsibility of the Federal Government when they’re clearly not and no-one is buying his blaming others rhetoric.
After ten years it’s clear that Minister Barnett and the Rockliff minority government have given up when it comes to health and are now resorting to blaming others rather than taking responsibility themselves.
They are out of time and out of ideas and it’s now time for a Labor Government to do the job of repairing our health system.
Anita Dow MP
Shadow Minister for Health, Mental Health, and Wellbeing
