Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, on 3 June you wrote to the Tasmanian Minister for Health and offered to reallocate funding to continue for three years the Psychiatric Emergency Nurses program at the Royal Hobart Hospital—thank you. But three weeks later doubt remains about the program continuing for anywhere near that long. Minister, what is going on with the Tasmanian government, and what assurance can you give that the PEN program is safe?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Denison for his question. I appreciate the interest that the member for Denison has taken in psychiatric services in his electorate. It is an issue that has been raised by him with me over a number of months—and this program in particular several weeks ago—as well as by other Tasmanian members.

I am happy to confirm, as the member for Denison has said, that I have provided the Tasmanian government with a funding offer to use Commonwealth funds for important psychiatric services. As the day-to-day manager of Tasmania's health system, the Tasmanian government will have to make important decisions about the allocation of resources, but I have put on the record that the Commonwealth government stands ready to assist. We are in frequent, ongoing discussions with the Tasmanian government. I am very hopeful, indeed confident, that we can conclude these arrangements satisfactorily.

I also want to take the opportunity of the member for Denison's question to update other members of the House on progress in Tasmania on the health package. The Tasmanian health system is a strong beneficiary of increased investment in health expenditure. In this year's budget there will be a record $399 million from this government to Tasmania for its health system for the 2013-14 year—that is, a $29 million increase on the 2012-13 year, a very substantial amount. Of course, funding is increasing every year, including through our spending on the $325 million package that was designed to get the Tasmanian health system back on track.

The package includes funding, for example, for 2,600 additional elective surgeries. This year, there was an expectation that we would do 745 of those surgeries. I am very pleased to say that by May we had already completed 700 of those 745 additional surgeries. That is, people have had operations on cataracts, hips and knees—all elective surgery that they otherwise would have been waiting for years for. They have been able to get the surgery sooner. We are also supporting existing programs and expanding them across Tasmanian—things like the terrific Cradle Coast Connected Care advanced care planning system, which will allow people to have advanced care directives on their personally controlled eHealth records.

We are completely rebuilding the Royal Hobart Hospital, as the member for Denison well knows passing the building site almost daily in his work, no doubt, with a $340 million investment. Right across Tasmania, there have been developments, like the fantastic GP superclinic in Burnie that I visited recently with the member for Braddon and $36.6 million for the Tasmanian Cancer Care project. Right across Tasmania, in Hobart and in all of the cities, there has been extra investment from our Commonwealth government in supporting better health for Tasmanians.