100 signatures reached
To: Bridget Archer, Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing
Keep The Hobart Clinic Open
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Southern Tasmania is about to lose its last private mental health inpatient facility, with the Hobart Clinic scheduled to close at the end of October. This means the removal of a critical lifeline and 27 vital beds from our mental health system.
All of us know someone – a friend, family member, neighbour, or colleague – who has struggled with their mental health. The Hobart Clinic has been there for over 40 years to catch people when they’ve fallen, and its closure will leave a gap that cannot be easily filled.
The state government must step in immediately and provide the support needed to keep this vital facility open - lives and the future of mental health care in southern Tasmania depend on it.
The state government must step in immediately and provide the support needed to keep this vital facility open - lives and the future of mental health care in southern Tasmania depend on it.
Why is this important?
The Health Minister has suggested that patients can go elsewhere in the public system but we know this simply isn’t true. The Hobart Clinic is the only service in the state offering vital treatments such as inpatient TMS. Without it, patients would need to be much sicker before they could be admitted through the emergency department. Wait times will grow even further, already stretched public services will be pushed beyond breaking point, and lives will be placed in real danger.
The Hobart Clinic plays a crucial role in keeping people well and out of the public system. Most patients are lower acuity and would never qualify for crisis-based hospital services. What are they meant to do when there is nothing else like this available anywhere in Tasmania? Some will have to consider travelling interstate to access the same kind of treatment – an option most simply cannot afford.
Staff have been treated terribly throughout this entire process. They found out about the closure only an hour before the news was released to the public. These are dedicated professionals who pour their hearts into delivering some of the best mental health care in the country but they've been treated with nothing but contempt.
The Hobart Clinic, as a registered charity, exists to serve the community, not to generate a profit. Not that long ago, the Hobart Clinic was even discussing expansion – so how has it come to this? Why should patients and staff bear the burden of years of financial mismanagement?