Politicians must end the blame game, stop struggling to upgrade the RHH and get on with building a new facility, says the AMA.
The state government should switch its focus to building a new hospital in southern Tasmania instead of “continuing to struggle” to upgrade the Royal Hobart, says the local AMA branch in its 2025-26 budget submission.
“Trying to redevelop a new hospital on a current site is proving slow, expensive, complex, and challenging,” said Dr Michael Lumsden-Steel, president of AMA Tasmania.
“Stage two (the second tower) of the redevelopment is not even on the drawing board.
“Staff are being left in limbo, waiting for budget commitments to fund essential upgrades and are fed up with working on a continual building site and constant relocation.
“We as the current generation need to be building the healthcare system for us, but also for the future.
“We can no longer continue to rely on infrastructure that’s been built years ago … it’s our job to have a responsibility to build for our kids and their kids in the future.
“We think it can’t be too far from the existing Royal Hobart Hospital site, somewhere within 10 to 15 minutes, we need good strategic planning at a site where we’ve got scope to expand,” Dr Lumsden-Steel told the Hobart Mercury.
“We know the state can’t afford to build the infrastructure without federal government top-ups. We’ve got a federal election coming. We need to see the Feds acknowledging our financial situation, the need to build the infrastructure.”
The submission proposed other key strategies:
- Invest in resources to speed up diagnoses and treatment for patients;
- Fast-track a seamless electronic medical record system that will improve communication and reduce errors in patient care;
- Improve access to virtual care to reduce hospital admissions and provide timely support;
- Implement robotic surgery at the Royal Hobart Hospital to expand surgical capabilities; and
- Increase support for general practice and improve collaboration between primary care and hospitals.
“The AMA is also calling on politicians to end the blame game, for all parties to get together, and have the discussions that need to be had around funding healthcare and the necessary tax reforms that are required to deliver the funding required to meet the demands being placed on our health system,” said the submission.