REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: Good morning everybody, thank you so much for coming today. I'd like to recognise my Senate colleague, Senator Tammy Tyrrell, and also the State Minister for Health, Bridget Archer, joining us here today for a really important announcement about the next step for the Northern Heart Centre.
The Australian Government was really proud to be able to commit $120 million of funding to support a new Northern Heart Centre. We know that Tasmanians carry a disproportionate burden of cardiovascular disease compared to the broader Australian population and we need to ensure that they have access to appropriate services close to where they live. The Tasmanian Government through its work identified the need for more infrastructure here in northern part of Tasmania and the Australian Government was pleased to commit $120 million to build the Northern Heart Centre here in Launceston. Today we are celebrating that early work starts next month. This is a project that is going to transform access to cardiac services in the northern part of Tasmania, not just here in Launceston but right across the northwest, too. Making sure that more Tasmanians can access the high-quality care that they deserve. We know that cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death right across the country and we also understand that we need to do more to better diagnose and treat patients sooner so they can have a full life and have access to the right and appropriate care so that they can live a god quality life. Having services like this here, embedded in the northern part of Tasmania will be a life changer for many Tasmanians and it will be supported by high quality clinical care delivered by the staff here at the Launceston General Hospital to make sure that right across the north and northwest of Tasmania we can complement services around the state so that cardiac care can be delivered for people no matter where they live.
BRIDGET ARCHER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH TASMANIA: Thanks very much, Bec, for being here today and we're very grateful to the Australian Government for the support that they have provided to commence work here on the Northern Heart Centre. As Bec said, we know that cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of deaths and it is a significant issue for Tasmanians. The Tasmanian Cardiac Strategy has identified that there needed to be additional support here in the north in terms of infrastructure for cardiac patients. This work here with the new Northern Heart Centre will deliver 24 beds, two cardiac cath labs as well as additional diagnostic treatments here in Northern Tasmania. That will be so important for the future of cardiac care here in Northern Tasmania.
The Tasmanian Government welcomes this substantial step forward, and we note that additional enabling works will start here in the coming weeks, as Bec has said, before construction kicks off early in the new year. That will take until around the end of 2029 for this building to be completed. As with all of the work as part of the Launceston General Hospital Masterplan, this is a difficult piece of work when we're working within an existing operating hospital. That will create some challenges for patients accessing particularly through Franklin Street as the work is undertaken on this. But those- wayfaring and other things will be in place as that work is underway. We’ll minimise disruption to patients, to visitors and to staff as we always do with the work that is being undertaken here at the Launceston General Hospital in a working hospital environment.
These are complex infrastructure processes and we're very pleased that Fairbrother is going to be undertaking this work. They're very experienced in undertaking this sort of work in a working hospital environment.
KURT ARNOLD, FAIRBROTHER CEO: Thank you. On behalf of Fairbrother, we are proud to be part of this important project for Northern Tasmania including those on the Northwest of Tasmania. This facility will provide much needed services for all of those across the whole north and northwest of the state. The facility will be a purpose-built cardiac facility, including for 24 inpatient beds, along with supporting lab diagnostics and monitoring areas connected within the existing LGH facility. Construction will commence with preparatory works. The preparatory works will start at the end of next month, in October, across four distinctly separate areas interfacing directly with the existing hospital area. The preparatory works are expected to take around 12 months to complete. Once the preparatory works are complete over that 12 month period the main works will commence. The main works are scheduled to take around 24 months to complete, taking overall completion of the project through until the end of 2029. Across the 36 month construction period, we anticipate some 320,000 work hours. That translates to around an average of 55 construction workers across the duration. Construction will peak at around 80 workers on site and of those 80 workers we anticipate being 20 apprentices across all trades. Thank you.
DR PAUL MACINTYRE, CHAIR OF THE TASMANIAN CARDIAC NETWORK: I'm delighted to join Ministers Archer and White today to announce the construction of the Northern Heart Centre in the grounds of Launceston Hospital. We launched the Cardiac Tasmanian Strategy in May of last year and in the strategy, we announced this infrastructure development which has been funded by the Federal Government to the tune of $120 million. It’s an absolute game changer in terms of cardiac care for communities in the north and the northwest of Tasmania. It will improve equity of access to cardiac care and help deliver much better patient outcomes across the north of the state. We are absolutely thrilled to make this announcement today and look forward to its construction and the delivery of contemporary, state of the art cardiac services in the future.
JOURNALIST: What’s the importance of prioritising cardiovascular health given Tasmania’s relatively higher heart disease rate?
MACINTYRE: It has the highest rate of cardiovascular disease in Australia. It is absolutely crucial that we prioritise this and I’m sure that the Federal Government recognised that. We’ve also committed State Government funds from Strategy to address the gaps in service that exist at the moment across Tasmania, but mainly the north of the state. The reason for increased incidents and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in Tasmania is driven by the demographics. It’s driven by social disadvantage, the social determinants of health leading to increased cardiovascular risk factors and on to cardiovascular disease. However there is also an issue in terms of access to care, particularly for the northwest of the state and this particular facility on the ground of Launceston General Hospital will deliver the capacity and the capability that we require to address those issues and deliver equity of access. That’s really what this is about, to ensure that all Tasmanians have access to the same heart health care. And I think that is going to be a key deliverable going forward as part of this infrastructure build and Cardiac Strategy.
JOURNALIST: Where do the people that will be using this facility, where do they go now?
MACINTYRE: So they go to Launceston General Hospital which has got a well-developed cardiology set up, but there are significant gaps in that service that this facility will address. There are certainly infrastructure issues that will be addressed by this facility. We’re going to expand the number of cardiology beds to 24 with six coronary care beds, two catheterisation labs and a full outpatient department with diagnostic services in a cardiology department that will be state of the art.
JOURNALIST: So will there be operation cardiac surgeons in the centre?
MACINTYRE: No, that's not planned at the moment. The cardiac surgery facility is in the Royal Hobart Hospital which delivers the level six cardiology services. That’s a complicated equation but there are other levels six services in the Royal Hobart facility and the delivery of those services will remain at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
JOURNALIST: What effect will it have on- I mean, usually when I attend here it’s because there’s trouble in the emergency department. What will that- will this facility help that?
MACINTYRE: Absolutely. So we're injecting an additional 24 beds into Launceston General Hospital. That will give us increased capacity. We’ll have a dedicated, stand-alone cardiology facility that will allow much better access for patients to be transported or transferred from the north of the state to here- from the northwest of the state to here to get timely cardiac care both in an acute setting but also in an elective setting.