Labor believes low-quality microwave-meals could be on the table for Launceston General Hospital patients if its kitchen services move offsite.
Shadow Health Minister Ella Haddad says the plan announced by former Health Minister Guy Barnett breaks a 2018 Master Plan promise to keep food services within the hospital.
“When you move to a cook and chill style of delivering food to a hospital from offsite, there is an inevitable deterioration in the quality of that food,” she said.
“Vegetables are dehydrated, things are reheated onsite alongside things that don’t need reheating. The quality of the food will diminish and that will eventually inevitably affect patient care.”
The proposed change would affect over 90 staff members’ workplace locations.
Health and Community Services Union delegate Ryan Taylor said poor food quality directly threatens patient recovery.
“If you’re a sick patient, you need to be eating healthily. You need to be eating the food that the doctors need you to eat,” he said.
“And if the food is of a low quality, you’re going to be less inclined to eat.”
Health Minister Jacquie Petrusma confirmed that while no final decision has been made on the kitchen’s location, services would remain public.
“I can assure Tasmanians, especially those who live in the north, there will be no downgrading of food quality or kitchen services at the Launceston General Hospital,” she said.
“We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars into modernising and improving health services as well as food services and kitchen services at the Launceston General Hospital.”
