Given that you're not changing your position, can you please tell us, if you're successful in converting 39,000 hectares of high conservation value FPPF forests, is it your intention to convert them to PTBZ land to be managed by Forestry Tasmania?
Minister, just another issue that's dear to your heart. Tasmanians are dying at a considerable rate from smoking‑related diseases - cardiovascular and respiratory diseases - and clearly there are anti‑smoking measures taken up across Tasmania. Reducing smoking in CBDs and other public places can be effective in reducing smoking rates, and yet changes of by‑laws through each council is costly and clunky. It's a really clunky system. How can you look to making smoke‑free areas more uniform across Tasmania?
Thank you Chair. Minister, every dollar spent on keeping people well is a dollar saved, according to multiple sources, and yet there seems to be little in this budget that will aid in improving communities' access to health and wellbeing options. According to the Australian Prevention Partnership, each additional kilometre walked has been estimated to result in health‑related benefits that range in value from $1 to $2.08. Each additional kilometre cycled results in health‑related benefits that range in value from less than two cents to $1.12.
Minister, I just wanted to touch on the Gender Budget Statement and obviously there's a large proportion of women in the Health workforce. You and I co‑hosted a forum on menopause and perimenopause - a good time to pause there, wasn't it? There's a significant concern for women in relation to having those benefits in the workplace and, clearly, Ms Haddad was talking about retention or work health and safety around issues. Having and retaining more staff rather than losing them would be of benefit. I was just wondering what sort of benefit you may see to having some sort of reproductive leave and recognition of that.
I want to ask a question about COVID. I understand COVID is something no-one wants to talk about any more. It's had an enormous negative impact on us and people want to forget about it and move on. But there is mounting evidence that the health impacts of COVID are growing and not going away, and ignoring the problem won't change that. There is research that links even mild acute COVID infections with population‑wide increases in a large number of chronic diseases, which has huge implications for our health system and increased demand we can expect on services going forward.
The Human Resources Information System (HRIS) in the Department of Health was scheduled to be rolled out and operational by the second half of 2024. Can you give us an update on what the status of the HRIS is and has there been any reduction to its scope or implementation?
How many triage category 2 patients were subject to transfer of care delays longer than 15 minutes in 2023‑24?
We've been hearing concerns raised by paramedics about some critically important specialised equipment, particularly the portable suction units used to manage airways during cardiac arrests. Apparently, there have been concerns raised and safety reports made about the fact that the suction pressure in the equipment is too low to effectively deal with some cases. And not only that, but the units operate off the same oxygen tanks that also feed the patient's oxygen supply which means that the tanks need to be frequently changed during a serious resuscitation effort. Are you aware of these concerns and what's your response?
A report on government services data shows that in 2018‑19, the 90th percentile response time for emergency incidents in the Hobart area was 21 minutes, but in 2022-23 it had increased to 31 minutes - a 10-minute, 48 per cent increase - in just five years and we've also seen our statewide results rapidly worsening over the same period. We know in an emergency, every single minute counts, but thousands of Tasmanians every year are waiting longer and longer for an ambulance when they need it the most. Has the department done any work to understand the impact that lengthening response times may have had on patient outcomes or to assess in any way the harm that's being caused by these lengthening delays, so kind of following through after the delays and seeing the impact?
So what was the total number of paramedic shifts that were worked in 2023‑24? And what was the total number that went unfilled. And again, could we get that in raw terms, please, not percentages?