Tasmanian primary care providers face service cuts after funding loss

Primary care providers being forced to cut services after losing Tasmanian government funding say the result will be added strain on "pressure cooker" emergency departments that could see them "explode".

Medical provider Moreton Group Medical Service will end a mobile GP program that delivered 9,000 free appointments to regional and disadvantaged communities in the south of the state over two years, after its funding was not extended in last week's state budget.

Rob Moreton of Moreton Group Medical Services said it was devastating to learn his organisation had lost funding, warning it would increase the strain on hospitals.

"The people that we support are the ones that may have otherwise rung Triple Zero, got an ambulance, increased ramping, to go to the ED for their healthcare needs," Mr Moreton said.

At the 2024 state election, the Liberals pledged $500,000 to deliver the two-year trial.

It said at the time it "would look to extend the Mobile GP Clinic state-wide", lauding the potential to reduce demand on ambulances and emergency departments.

"It's already a pressure cooker, and by adding this, we're just putting more steam in there and locking that lid down; it's going to explode," Mr Moreton said.

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Meanwhile, Cygnet-based nurse practitioner Kerrie Duggan said her clinic will end its after-hours service in Cygnet, 45 minutes south of Hobart.

She voiced concerns about the impact on people in the region and on the public health system.

It comes as Health Minister Bridget Archer said the state can "no longer afford to step in and fund primary care services", launching an attack on the federal government for underfunding primary care.

"Our government has continually been forced to step in and provide services that should be funded by the Commonwealth," she said.

The state government has faced strong criticism in recent days for the level of health funding in the budget, though Ms Archer has claimed, "there are no cuts to health".

While health funding does increase year on year, the increases are below inflation.

The health department is also required to find $702.61 million in "operational efficiencies".

Warnings of health 'cliff' for marginalised communities

Mr Moreton said while he agreed the federal government needed to do more, the state could not step out of the primary care space without a plan.

Mr Moreton's group Medical Services also runs an after-hours medical service, which is funded by Primary Health Tasmania, but he said the day services were critical, as they reached a different demographic.

"They're reaching young people, they're reaching children, they're reaching women … 15.4 per cent of the people that access our services are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander," he said.

He also said defunding community health organisations would affect the workforce.

"What that's meant is that we've been able to bring nurse practitioners in from interstate and increase the health workforce," said Mr Moreton.

Regional Tasmanians to 'miss out'

The cost of the Cygnet Family Practice has been funded for the last four years to provide a mix of urgent and after-hours appointments in the town, 40 minutes south of Hobart.

Kerrie Duggan said that through surveying patients, they had found the service was routinely saving patients a trip in the back of an ambulance.

"We can prove that — every six months for the last four years now we've had to put in a report to the Department of Health and every time we've met those KPIs," she told 936 ABC Hobart.

She estimated the service, which cost the government $250,000 a year, was saving the public health service about $1 million a year.

A new federal government-funded Medicare Urgent Care Clinic has opened in Kingston; however, Ms Duggan voiced concerns about its ability to cater to the entire region.

Minister calls for federal government to step up

The state budget includes a $265 million increase to health funding over the next three years compared to last November's interim budget.

However, that coincides with a new National Health Reform Agreement, which will see the federal government chip in an extra $527 million to health over that same period.

Federal Assistant Health Minister Rebecca White questioned the timing of the state government's cuts.

"I'm pretty confident there would have been an expectation, if not specific guarantees explicitly written in their document, that this would have resulted in improved hospital outcomes for Tasmanians," she told 936 ABC Hobart.

However, Ms Archer said the state had stepped into primary care for too long.

The Tasmanian government made several commitments at the 2024 state election aimed at Primary health, including picking up HECS debts for new GPs who work in rural and regional areas and delivering grants to private practices.