Train people here so they stay here
- Teaching and general hospital on the Gold Coast University Hospital model
- Satellite health hubs, including reopening Ouse Medical Centre
- Paid clinical placements so students do not drop out
- Stop rebuilding forever on a Royal Hobart site that cannot grow
Tasmania still has higher rates of chronic disease, mental health trouble, and worse access out in the bush. Failing maternity services and the mess around private hospital capacity have not gone away.
The Royal Hobart Emergency Department was built for about 45,000 presentations a year. It has already been over 75,000. Planning has that past 106,000 by 2037. From 15 September they sent patients through a temporary Argyle Street door so Liverpool Street can be rebuilt through to 2028. That is $130 million on a site the AMA and the ANMF say is approaching its use-by date. We are still pouring money into a city block that cannot grow.
A dedicated teaching and general hospital is still the answer. Learn from the Gold Coast model but let’s not copy it blindly. Train people here so they stay here. Too many Tasmanians still leave to study health and never come back. Importing workers has had limited success.
COTA’s reading of Treasury figures has people 65 and over heading toward 27 percent by 2038. The group aged 85 and over more than triples by 2053. You do not staff that with locums and another extension and expect an efficient health system.
Unpaid placements still drive students out. The Commonwealth Prac Payment is a start. It does not replace a state that actually builds the training places.
Regional hubs still matter. GP services are still thinning out. Basic care locally still stops people ending up in that overcrowded ED. Satellite facilities in partnership with the state government could see Ouse Medical Centre open its doors again to those 1,000 displaced patients.
And you cannot keep nurses, carers or young families here if they cannot find a house.