Labor has promised $2 million to extend specialised women’s health services into regional Tasmania if it wins the state election.
The funding would allow Family Planning Tasmania to set up outreach clinics in towns including Queenstown, Ulverstone, Kingston and Scottsdale.
This, leader Dean Winter said, would bring specialist women’s health care closer to home for regional patients.
“Women who need more specialised services, more contraceptive services in regional towns and suburbs” would benefit from the expanded access, Winter said.
“If we provide more services into regional Tasmania, that takes pressure off our hospitals and in the long term that’s the way to go.”
Family Planning Tasmania currently runs three clinics in Glenorchy, Launceston and Burnie, treating more than 20,000 patients each year.
It has provided sexual and reproductive health services including contraception, STI testing and treatment, pregnancy options and sexual health counselling for more than 50 years.
CEO Marcus DiMartino said the organisation had previously offered outreach services but lacked the funding to keep them going.
“We’ve got pretty big plans about providing continuity of care so people coming in either weekly, fortnightly into a certain area so then the local community can engage and form a relationship with our specialist team,” DiMartino said.
He said many patients currently face long trips for short appointments, with some spending most of the day travelling on public transport.
“It might take them most of a day to simply have a 30-minute consult with one of our team,” he said.
“That’s the beauty of this policy. It allows us to put our specialist people in those communities and therefore we can get a lot more outcome a lot more patients through and deliver those services.”
Labor’s women’s health spokeswoman Ella Haddad called the announcement “game-changing”.
“This is funding that will provide critical health care in our regions and towns.,” Haddad said.
