Ms ROSOL – I have some questions around sustainability in the Department of Health. The Long‑Term Plan for Healthcare in Tasmania 2040, which was released in June 2023, includes sustainable and environmentally responsible services as one of four priorities for action, and that includes being an environmentally sustainable health system that recognises, acts upon and measures its impact on climate change. As part of that, I understand that there is the statewide health environmental sustainability subcommittee. In 2022‑23 the committee met 67 per cent of the expected times. In 2023‑24, the committee met only 55 per cent of the times they should, and in the 2024‑25 annual report, there’s no information about subcommittee meetings that I could find.
How many times did the statewide health environmental sustainable subcommittee meet in 2024‑25. That failure of the committee to meet as often as it should, is that a reflection that the department is not committed to environmental sustainability or a strategic response to climate change?
Mrs ARCHER – I will just refer to the Secretary for some specific information.
Mr WEBSTER – Through you, minister. We’re just getting the number of meetings and number of participants, but the fact we didn’t publish it in our annual report doesn’t actually mean we’ve withdrawn from that space.
Ms ROSOL – It is a pattern of not meeting as often as expected.
Mr WEBSTER – In 2024‑25, we, in fact, joined a collaborative with a number of other health services under Monash University to look at how we go about providing long‑term health sustainability, including climate change, et cetera. That report is due for release; it’s been delayed a couple of times. That will guide our future.
In addition to that, in the past, the committee you referred to has been sitting under our public health service ‑ very separate, or separate leadership, from our Tasmanian Health Service, where we can have the most impact. Part of what we’ve done in recent times is actually move it so the leadership sits within the Tasmanian Health Service. So, if you like, we’re reinvigorating it in line with ‑ as you said, it can get lost in our in many things that we’re doing, but sustainability has to be something that we value within the service.
Second, it’s incredibly important because we are massive users of single‑use products across our services. We want to reduce that footprint for a number of reasons. First, it’s not a great way to do it, but you’re also adding to clinical waste going into landfill, et cetera. The plan, working with other health services, is to determine what are the best ways for us to reduce our footprint going forward and reinvigorating that committee and putting it under the THS instead of public health is certainly one way of doing that.
Ms ROSOL – Can I clarify, because, looking through all the information that I could find in documents and on the website, anytime sustainability is mentioned, this priority action ‑ I believe it’s No 4 of 6 – it only talks about financial sustainability, not environmental sustainability. A follow‑up question is: how many staff have been employed in sustainability within the Department of Health and the Tasmanian Health Service in dedicated sustainability roles? How many staff have been employed and how many staff are now employed? Looking at environmental sustainability, not financial sustainability.
Mr WEBSTER – We may need to take the number of staff in that space on notice if the minister is okay with that? All of my answer there was talking about environmental sustainability.
Ms ROSOL – Yes, it doesn’t match what is documented.
Mr WEBSTER – We do have a financial sustainability program running within the department, which is related to how we make ourselves more efficient, how we maximise our revenue. The question from Ms Haddad about our MRI machine, for instance. That’s a completely separate issue for us. I know it has a similar name, but the –
Ms ROSOL – It comes under the same action in the plan –
Mr WEBSTER – Yes, I realise that.
Ms ROSOL – even though they’re two separate things and I can’t find any information about environmental sustainability, and I was looking on the Department of Health website in New South Wales and they have reams of information about what they’re doing in this space, but I can’t find any information about Tasmania. A kind of beginning question is how many employees are employed specifically in a dedicated role for that? I appreciate that question will be on notice.
Mr WEBSTER – The minister will look at that. Rest assured, despite the website, we are committed in this space and working with that collaborative was about reinvigorating this space because we realised that we’d slowed down.
Mrs ARCHER – We will take the question on notice.
