Minister for Health and Aged Care, press conference – 26 February 2025

MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY AND MINISTER FOR SMALL BUSINESS JULIE COLLINS: It's terrific to have the Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler in town. Mark, of course, has been in Tasmania for the last couple of days with some very significant announcements about federal Labor's investments in strengthening Medicare and in our health system more broadly, here in Tasmania. It's always a real privilege to have Mark in town. We've also, of course, got our state minister, Jacquie Petrusma here. We're here for a very important announcement about maternity services in Hobart. We do know that there's been speculation in the media in the last few days and concerns raised by mums and their families about maternity services and the ongoing viability of those here in Hobart, and how the closure of the Hobart private maternity services will impact our other hospitals such as the Royal Hobart Hospital and the Calvary Hospital. Can I say as a mum who’s had a child in all 3 of these maternity hospitals, they are all fabulous services, and Tasmanian parents should be confident that they'll get the very best maternity services here in Hobart, and that's why this announcement today is so important. I'm happy to hand over to Minister Mark Butler to make this announcement
 
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Thanks, Julie, and thank you, Jacquie as well for coming together with us this morning for this really important announcement. Can I say at the outset that I've got the highest admiration for the way in which Minister Petrusma has grasped the nettle on this really significant challenge for services here in Tasmania. Frankly, the job of a state health minister is tough enough without having to essentially pick up the pieces of a service that has been delivered by private hospital operators funded by private health insurers with significant taxpayer support. Jacquie, you've dealt with that really quickly, decisively and constructively in your discussions with the Commonwealth. I'm really pleased to announce that the Commonwealth will be providing Tasmania with an additional $6 million to assist the Tasmanian Government in expanding their birthing unit capacity here in Hobart. Also, if it is the view that this would be in the interests of Tasmanians, also providing additional funds to Calvary, which I see on the front page of The Mercury this morning, to their credit, has indicated a willingness to expand their birthing unit capacity, to pick up the slack left by Healthscope closing maternity services here in Hobart, as frankly they have done in Darwin as well. This is all part of a really constructive relationship our two governments have had since we were elected. We had it with Jeremy Rockliff when he was the health minister as well as Premier. I've enjoyed it with Jacquie in the time she's been in this portfolio. We had some good, constructive discussions, pretty much as soon as Healthscope made the announcement that they were pulling services from here in Hobart. It also comes on the back, of Jacquie having really squeezed a very good hospital funding deal out of the Commonwealth for the next financial year. Commonwealth funding to Tasmanian Health for their hospitals will increase by 14 per cent for 2025––26. That's an additional $93 million, more than twice what they otherwise would have expected under the old hospitals funding deal. We are determined to see Jacquie and the hard-working doctors, nurses and health professionals in Tasmanian Health deliver the best possible service right across this beautiful state, all the while of course as Julie said, we're getting out and about and talking about the policies we announced on Sunday to strengthen Medicare, to expand bulk billing, particularly in a state where bulk billing is lower than the rest of the federation, and also to put in place programs that deliver more doctors, more nurses, more endorsed midwives into the Australian health system. I'll hand over to Minister Petrusma to say a few words, and then we'll take questions.
 
TASMANIAN MINISTER FOR HEALTH, JACQUIE PETRUSMA: Thanks Mark. Can I say that since we found out about Healthscope pulling out of certain maternity services last Thursday, it's been wonderful to work with stakeholders, especially the federal government and the Minister, especially in regards to today's fantastic outcome. I feel that between the Minister and I, we are now delivering triplets. We are delivering better services and better equipment for the Royal Hobart Hospital. We are delivering better services and better equipment at Calvary, and we are giving the mums of Tasmania a new mother and baby unit that is going to be located in a far better holistic setting. This additional $6 million that the state government received, we’ll be splitting it between ourselves and Calvary Hospital. We'll be able to expand our maternity services at the Royal Hobart Hospital by an additional 10% or more. Calvary will also be able to expand their services. The midwives will also have better and newer equipment, and the mums and their bubs postnatally will have a new mother and baby unit St John's precinct, which is a more holistic setting, because we've heard loud and clear that having a mother and baby unit in a maternity services ward which is an acute setting is not satisfactory. That has been one of my passions that I've been working on since I became Health Minister, to ensure that we could deliver a better mother and baby unit out of the hospital setting., This funding will allow us to do that. It also has the benefit of being able to free up beds in maternity services, towards which this funding will go to fit them out as maternity beds. So this is a great announcement for Tasmania. I want to sincerely thank Minister Butler. It has been wonderful to work alongside him in regards to this announcement today, as well as the extra funding for our hospital system, and we look forward to working closely with Minister Butler in the future as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Thank you, Minister. We might actually start with perhaps yourself while we've got you there, and then perhaps other questions for Minister Butler from our other interstate colleagues. In relation to this funding announcement, is it a 50/50, split between the Calvary and Royal Hobart, and how confident are you that the 10% is actually going to be enough to cover that expected gap once Hobart Private closes its maternity services?
 
PETRUSMA: Calvary has already come out publicly and stated that they believe that they can go to about 1,000 births a year. They've already had 300 bookings extra over the last few days for maternity services. Calvary’s ability to go to 1000 births is more than enough to take on the demand at Hobart Private. But we're all about offering choice so there's going to be some families, some women, who will decide that they want to go to the public system now. This gives us an extra 10% in our capacity as well. So it is a win for both Calvary and for the Royal Hobart Hospital, but more importantly, for the women, the mothers and fathers of Tasmania. Throughout this last week, what we've been passionately committed to is ensuring that they get the support, the care and the services that they deserve. For families in Tasmania who have paid private health insurance for a private hospital delivery experience, this now gives them that option at Calvary, because Calvary will be able to expand. Also for some women who now make the choice that they want  to go public, we’ll have increased capacity at the Royal Hobart Hospital as well.
 
JOURNALIST: How many extra beds will actually be at Calvary, and how many extra beds at the Royal?
 
PETRUSMA: You'll have to ask Calvary for the exact details as to their increased capacity. But at the moment, we have about 29 beds. We can flex up to 31, but this will allow us to flex up to 34. So it's going to give us capacity of extra beds at the Royal. It's an over 10% increase, which is more than enough for the increase in capacity that we expect to come to the Royal versus what will be going to Calvary Health Services. But importantly, to have a new mother and baby unit that will be built fit for purpose in a more beautiful setting at St John's Park, this will actually address a lot of the issues that that mum's had, that stakeholders had in regards to having a mother and baby unit in an acute setting. So, this is very much a triple win for Tasmania.
 
JOURNALIST: How many beds will be in the new mother baby unit?
 
PETRUSMA: We are doing the scoping works right now, so works can commence soon. It will be more than we currently have.
 
JOURNALIST: Is it 5 that we currently have?
 
PETRUSMA: We have 3 beds at the moment.
 
JOURNALIST: Previously, I think, St Helen’s had about 11 or 12. Will you be getting back up to that capacity?
 
PETRUSMA:  It won't be at 11 or 12, but it will be more than what is currently
being offered.
 
JOURNALIST: What’s your timeline for getting that mother and baby unit up and running and underway?
 
PETUSMA: So scoping works have commenced now, and we hope to have it finished and built within nine months or earlier.
 
JOURNALIST: In terms of extra capacity at the Royal and Calvary for births, is there a timeline around how many extra births you expect each unit to be taking on?
 
PETRUSMA: Healthscope said that there are going to be ceasing services on the 20th of August, but Calvary is looking at how they can reconfigure right now so that they can take increased capacity in case women choose to deliver in Calvary from now onwards. We've also got the ability to go from 29 beds to 31 beds now, and when we remove the mother and baby unit, that'll allow us to go an extra three beds. So we can go from 29 beds to 34 beds, very, very quickly too.
 
JOURNALIST: Will any of this money be able to be spent on staffing?
 
PETRUSMA: Staffing is being addressed separately. In regards to staffing, Calvary has already started engaging with the midwives from Hobart Private, but we're also offering scholarships, relocation allowances. I acknowledge the fact that the federal government made a great announcement on the weekend in regards to offering more scholarships as well, and we're also having positive conversations about a fast track midwifery qualification that I'll have more details on hopefully soon.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you think there will be crossover in staff between the new mother and baby unit and staff and [inaudible]?
 
PETRUSMA: We're doing a lot in regards to workforce attraction. We already have midwives working in our Tasmanian Health Service. We at the moment are offering $15,000 for midwives interstate or overseas to come and work for us. Scholarships are now being offered between the Tasmanian Government as well as the federal government, and also, we are now looking at a fast track midwifery qualification, and we're also employing student midwives who work part time in our hospital by doing their qualification as well. So we're pulling out all the levers to ensure that we do have an increased workforce now and into the future.
 
JOURNALIST: Is it a bit embarrassing? We're getting the federal government to bail us out because the state can't afford it.
 
PETRUSMA: I just want to thank Minister Butler for his willingness to assist the state. All states and territories, you know, have funding challenges, and I'm really grateful that Minister Butler has been very positive about working with us to ensure that the mothers and babies and dads all from Tasmania have the services that they need. So we're very grateful for this extra funding boost. It really helps us.

JOURNALIST: There are some procedures that the Calvary hospital won't be willing to undertake. How will you work through those issues with them and make sure people can access the services they need?
 
PETRUSMA: Healthscope has told us that they'll be able to deliver most services for the very minimal small number of services that they can't we can absorb that in the public system.
 
JOURNALIST: Just coming back to that earlier question, there have been at least [inaudible] instances where we've had to rely on federal government funding to try and bolster services here. Is the state government doing enough to be proactive in this space, to ensure that these shortfalls are dealt with soon [inaudible]?
 
PETRUSMA: I think we have to keep in mind in regards to this situation, that Healthscope is a for-profit organisation, and it's a private equity company owned by North Americans. So at both a state and federal level, there was no intention of us propping up a for-profit organisation that is based in North America, because those dollars were not going to stay in Tasmania or Australia. That is why we are working cooperatively with Calvary. Calvary has been in Tasmania for over 80 years, and they are being fantastic through this process. They've been working very positively, both with the Commonwealth and state government. So we want to make sure that we have a partner that we know who is going to be here long term.
 
JOURNALIST: Do we have enough of a mix with providers as well, or we were too reliant on Healthscope for example, when services do perhaps fall over?
 
PETRUSMA: Well, in this situation now, between Calvary and the Tasmanian Health Services, we believe we have the capacity to absorb all maternity services. There's been a lot of work over the last week in looking at how we can work together both Tasmania Health Services and Calvary to ensure that women, mothers and fathers and their babies will get the services and support that they need in the right place at the right time.
 
JOURNALIST: Just explain a little bit more, sorry if you have previously about the fast-track midwifery program?
 
PETRUSMA: We'll have more to announce on the fast track midwifery course in the future, but we are working in regards to delivering a fast track midwifery course.
 
JOURNALIST: And you also said you were working on options for practical training or something as well.
 
PETRUSMA: So in the Tasmania Health Service, we currently offer scholarships alongside the federal government. We also offer relocation allowances, plus we also have student midwives that are working in our hospitals. They work part time in our hospitals, whether it's the Launceston General Hospital, whether it's the Royal Hobart Hospital, whether it's the North West Regional Hospital, as well as studying uni online as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Thank you, Minister. We might move on to Minister Butler. How did you arrive at the $6 million Minister? And how confident are you that this will go far enough that Tasmania's needs?
 
BUTLER: First of all, can I say I don't feel in any sense that we shouldn't be at this table. This is not Jacquie's responsibility or the Tasmanian government's responsibility. We work together in ensuring that all Australians have access to the highest quality hospital system, which I think is really one of the highest quality systems on the planet. So of course, you would expect a responsible, reliable Commonwealth Government to come to the table and to provide funding support for the work that Jacquie and her officials are doing alongside Calvary as well. This is just what a responsible Commonwealth Government does. In terms of the quantum after Jacquie and I had our first discussion some days ago, when I think parliament was sitting and she made a request for the Commonwealth to be involved in developing a solution, or help with finding a solution, our officials have worked between Tasmania and the Commonwealth on arriving at what that would look like. We've got great confidence in in Jacquie's team being able to deploy these funds appropriately. We'll provide them in a relatively flexible way that allows Jacquie and her team the scope to determine how much is directed towards Tas Health and how much goes to Calvary. I have great confidence they'll come up with a solution that best serves the interests of Tasmanian families.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you're going to do more broadly, though, because Tassie is not the only place that’s had a maternity ward close – I think there has been 14 across the country in recent years. Surely you can't just keep popping in $6 million here, $6 million there. What are you going to do to address the broader problem there is?
 
BUTLER: There is a broader challenge. Healthscope also pulled maternity services on the same day out of Darwin, which has a particular challenge as they don't have a Calvary hospital to fall back on. They have far fewer private births in the Northern Territory, so there's, there's greater capacity at the RDH up there. But, but this is a broader challenge. Jacquie, and all state governments and the Commonwealth are working currently on a maternity services strategy which addresses some of those workforce supply challenges, particularly midwives. We are short midwives really across the country, which we shouldn't be. We've always known that there are around 280,000 to 300,000 births every year. We should have been equipped with the number of midwives to deal with that. There was frankly, was too much neglect I think over the past decade around ensuring that training pipeline. I congratulate Jacquie and Tasmania for coming up with some innovative ideas like a fast-track or expedited training program for them, which I'm sure will still ensure the sort of quality that Australians demand and expect about health workforce. But we're working more broadly on some ideas about bolstering this workforce, particularly midwives. I've also put a number of ideas that I saw canvassed in The Mercury this morning, to a group of CEOs that we convened several months ago, private hospital, private health insurer, CEOs, AMA, obviously, and also consumer groups to nut out some ideas to make elements of the private sector more sustainable than they currently are. Maternity services and psychiatric as Jacquie well knows are probably the 2 areas of most significant concern. I put on the table some ideas about really making things much more flexible and responsive to the needs of families through private health insurance arrangements. I encourage again, hospitals and insurers to nut out and find a solution for.
 
I want to go back to my opening remarks. These are essentially commercial operations. Companies are making a lot of money out of services like the Hobart Private and many others besides. Calvary is a non-profit organisation that's been serving Australians across the country for decades and decades. But many of these companies are making very big profits, whether they're insurers or private hospital operators, they need to remember, they're making those profits through the hard-earned cash of families who pay their private health insurance policies. Families for maternity cover have to pay a gold product, and here in Hobart now, they have been left down by the private system, and Jacquie and the Commonwealth had to step in, along with Calvary and find a solution for that. The private system has to do better. Both governments stand ready to do what we can, but frankly, this primarily is their responsibility to come up with these solutions.
 
JOURNALIST: Otherwise, Minister from one of my colleagues interstate, is the federal government working on getting a proton radiation therapy machine in Australia after the disastrous contract failure in your home state, South Australia?
 
BUTLER: Yes, look, a proton therapy unit is a really important part of the suite of cancer treatment options, particularly now for kids, but over time, I suspect, for adults as well here in Australia. Countries right around the world are grappling with the challenge and the opportunity of putting in place proton therapy in their systems, and we're doing that here in Australia. You're right, there have been some substantial contract problems in South Australia, where the first unit was supposed to be installed. This is a contract that goes back many years now, or several years now. I instructed Cancer Australia to bring together all of the jurisdictions to put some advice for health ministers, but particularly the Commonwealth, to look at about how we go forward. The South Australian Government, given that there's a lot of sunk capital there in a building with an area that's been specifically designed to accommodate a unit, is doing the lead work on this to see whether another type of unit from another supplier can be sourced. We want that work to happen as quickly as possible because at the moment, really what's happening for kids who need this type of cancer treatment, they have to go overseas. In many cases they're funded by the government, by the Commonwealth, to go overseas and receive this cancer treatment, usually in the United States. We're going to try and make sure that that program is as flexible as it possibly can be to ensure families and kids can get that treatment still overseas. But I really want to see this unit available in Australia as quickly as possible and I'm working with the South Australia government to try and make sure that happens.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about reports out of La Trobe Regional Hospital in Victoria about adverse events and misdiagnosis there?
 
BUTLER: Look, I haven't seen those reports. I'll make sure I get across those reports. The short answer is that there are very clear obligations on state hospitals to report adverse events, sentinel events, in particular, through the hospital funding arrangements that we have. But sorry, I'm not across those reports from La Trobe.
 
JOURNALIST: And just one on internet and mobile coverage. The Tasman Council has held a public meeting to talk about their issues with phone and internet coverage down that way, they've been using Starlink I understand it. What's being done by the federal government to improve services.
 
COLLINS: The Federal Government yesterday through Minister Rowland announced outdoor Universal Service Obligation. This will be accessing satellites through NBN to give people better mobile coverage outdoors. This is great news for regional communities, for our farmers and our primary producers out in regional Tasmania and regional Australia. This will make it easier for people in regional areas in Tasmania to make a mobile phone call, accessing those satellites and getting through. It will make a huge difference to Tasmanians and particularly people in regional Australia.
 
JOURNALIST: How soon will we start to see some changes?
 
COLLINS: Well, it takes a little bit of time to get those changes through, but certainly this is the Albanese government building a better NBN for Australians. We've already made other announcements about better connectivity in the regions, in terms of our fibre roll out that will impact Tasmanians. This is a further advancement of that with [inaudible].
 
JOURNALIST: Do you have a timeline for that radiation therapy machine for South Australia?
 
BUTLER: Now, as I said, I'm hopeful we're able to land a solution for this as soon as possible. I don't have a particular date. Thanks everyone.