I guess the Tasmanians did not want to be left out

Staff at the Royal Hobart Hospital have rejected the Tasmanian Government's assertion that the hospital receives sufficient funding. The hospital overspent its budget by $6 million last year and Health Minister Lara Giddings says there will not be any more money if the hospital exceeds this year's budget of $255 million.

The chairman of the hospital's Staff Association, Dr Frank Nicklason, says the Government is asking the hospital to provide services it cannot afford. "There isn't a recognition that the Royal is a tertiary university teaching hospital, that we're funded for around about half the State's health budget, but we are doing the complex and obviously the much more expensive cases on a state-wide basis," he said.

Meanwhile, the Greens want an independent inquiry into the Government's handling of hospital funding. Acting Greens leader Nick McKim says two years ago the Government commissioned the Richardson Report into the operation of hospitals in Tasmania. "It's time, in the view of the Greens, for there to be a performance review of how the Government has gone in implementing the recommendations in the Richardson Report," he said. "There were over 50 recommendations made by Professor Richardson and I doubt very much that the Government has done half."

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