Australian Medical Association - Tasmania

16/10/2026

What we are hearing about Project Bluegum should concern every Tasmanian. Bluegum is much more than a new electronic medical record. The medical record is a vital part, but Bluegum is the bigger job of connecting Tasmania’s health system so doctors can access the right information, results are not missed and patients receive safer, more joined-up care. For more than six years, across successive AMA Tasmania presidents and health ministers, we have pushed for this work to be properly funded and delivered. We have also warned that it cannot be done through piecemeal fixes.

We welcome the evidence being given to the parliamentary inquiry as a chance to be honest about what is going wrong, what needs to change and how we move beyond the decision-making paralysis holding back Bluegum and other critical health reforms.

Every delay adds risk and cost, while patients and clinicians are left relying on ageing, disconnected systems.

Bluegum needs strong leadership, clinical input, proper funding and clear accountability. Tasmania must deliver the whole project, not one part of it and call the job done.

Dr Meg Creely, President, AMA Tasmania

Tasmania’s $500 million health IT overhaul has been hampered by nepotism, toxic culture and ministers who refused to meet its clinical lead, a parliamentary inquiry has heard. 📍 DAVID KILLICK reports: https://bit.ly/3VMbj4y

15/10/2026

Tasmania’s health system is at breaking point. Hospitals are full, ambulances are delayed, and too many patients cannot access the care they need. This week’s tragic death in Hobart has brought the consequences into sharp focus.

AMA Tasmania is calling on the State and Federal governments to stop shifting responsibility, put clinicians at the table and fund the entire patient journey from ambulance and hospital care to rehabilitation, aged care or home.

Enough reviews. Enough excuses. It’s time to act.

The AMA has warned for years that Tasmania’s health system is running out of room. Hospitals are full. Ambulances are stuck. Older patients who are ready to leave hospital have nowhere to go because there are not enough aged-care places.

12/10/2026

A bigger emergency department is needed, but it will not fix a hospital that is already full and stretched. More ED spaces will not solve ramping if there are not enough beds, staff and services elsewhere in the hospital. This is another ten-year rebuild on a site that has never had enough room. After nearly 20 years of compromises, when will we stop patching up the same hospital and start planning what Tasmania will need for the next 30 years?

03/10/2026

03/10/2026

This time last week, AMA Tasmania brought together women from across the medical profession for our first Women in Medicine High Tea at Prospect House in Richmond. The afternoon was filled with collegiality and delicious treats, along with a guided tour (expertly dodging the fickle Tassie weather) and stories about the property’s rich history and agricultural endeavours. We were honoured to welcome Her Excellency the Honourable Caroline Wells, Governor of Tasmania, as our guest. Her warmth, kindness and relatable reflections on healthcare and leadership especially her advice about leading with kindness resonated with our members. A special thank you to the Pooley family for their hospitality, and Richmond Botanicals Co. for the beautiful gifts.

01/10/2026

AMA Tasmania president, GP Dr Meg Creely, told The Medical Republic that she felt the evaluation was incomplete. “It doesn’t say ‘does this reduce healthcare costs?’, ‘does this reduce pressure on general practice?’ – the one thing it does tell us is that the incredibly small portion of patients surveyed, liked it,” Dr Creely said.

“To me, this just isn’t a report.” Dr Creely acknowledged that the state government had already put a significant amount of money toward funding the trial, having agreed to reimburse pharmacists at $20 per consultation.

With over 6534 episodes of care delivered over the course of the trial, the cost to the government was $130,680 in services alone – not including costs related to administration, training, or marketing. When asked whether that sunk cost may have made it harder for the state government to walk away from the trial, Dr Creely said there were other approaches that were still open to the government.

“In a state which doesn’t have a lot of money and is making cuts in many places, I think investing that money was the wrong idea,” she said.

“But I think if there’s two choices, and one is to walk away from a bad decision so as to not create harm, and the other is to keep going ahead with it despite a lack of evaluation and a lack of evidence – then I think, from a patient safety perspective, the right call is to walk away from it and regroup.

“Look at what the evidence tells us works well, particularly our patients in Tasmania who have high rates of chronic and complex disease, often multiple of those.

“We know that having pharmacists within general practice will give those patients better care if we can use both the skills of the GP and the pharmacist to manage their chronic and complex care. That’s what we know works.

“I completely agree that spending however many millions of dollars we’re up to now, has been done. But I think this is a ‘cut your losses and move on’ rather than continuing down a pathway.

“Certainly, of the 23 proposed new protocols we’ve just seen land, there’s a huge amount of work in there. It creates transactional care. Patients don’t just walk into general practice with hypertension alone, or really any of those chronic conditions alone.”

It’s a not-so-logical sequence of events, say both the RACGP and the AMA Tasmania.

24/09/2026

Being on a Category 3 outpatient waiting list should not feel like putting your name down for a call that never comes. These patients have been referred because a doctor believes they need specialist assessment. But too many Tasmanians are being left waiting for years with no clear review, no realistic timeframe and no plan for what happens if their condition gets worse.

A waiting list should be a pathway to care, not a place where patients disappear from view. Patients deserve honesty, clinical review and real options before delay becomes denied care.

The AMA fears some Tasmanians on public hospital waitlists may never be seen, with non-urgent outpatient wait times to see an ENT currently estimated to be 1,900 days.

24/09/2026

When a flight is delayed, people expect updates. They expect to be told what is happening, whether the delay is getting worse, and what other options they have. Category 3 outpatient patients deserve the same honesty. Instead, too many Tasmanians are left on long specialist waiting lists with no clear review, no realistic timeframe and no meaningful way to make informed choices about their care. AMA Tasmania says patients should not be left in limbo until “waiting” effectively becomes care denied.

16/09/2026

AMA Tasmania joins advocates in urging the Tasmanian Government to follow South Australia’s lead and introduce common-sense reforms to online alcohol sales and delivery.

South Australia’s Parliament has passed new legislation to restrict late-night alcohol delivery and introduce a two-hour safety pause between order and delivery important measures to help prevent and reduce serious alcohol-related harms.

Rapid alcohol delivery increases the amount of alcohol in our homes and can extend drinking sessions, raising the risk of harm including violence against women and children.

The current review of Tasmania’s Liquor Licensing Act 1990 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen protections for the health and safety of Tasmanians.

AMA Tasmania is calling on the Tasmanian Government to include sensible, evidence-based safeguards for online alcohol sales and delivery as part of this important reform.