Health Minister Michael Ferguson under fire from Labor and the Greens over running of health system in Question Time

UPDATED: Tasmania’s Health Minister Michael Ferguson has dodged Labor’s second attempt to have the Lower House declare no confidence in him in about a month.

Health Minister Michael Ferguson speaks in state parliament.

MICHAEL Ferguson has dodged debate over his handling of the health portfolio after Labor’s attempt to argue a motion of no-confidence in the Bass MP fell flat.

Opposition leader Rebecca White moved a lengthy no-confidence motion in Mr Ferguson after a fiery Question Time that had Labor and the Greens putting pressure on the Liberal MHA for his performance over the past five years.

Making her case for debate, Ms White pointed to a scathing report released this week by the Auditor-General that found significant increases in incidences of ambulance ramping, lengthy waits in emergency departments and a rise in adverse events at the state’s hospitals.

Labor leader Rebecca White.

It marked Labor’s second attempt to have the Lower House declare no confidence in Mr Ferguson within about a month.

Government MPs dismissed the motion as a stunt and voted against holding the debate while the Greens voted in favour, meaning there 12 MPs apiece for and against.

Speaker Sue Hickey — who voted against a motion of no-confidence in Mr Ferguson last month — declared the attempt to debate the issue had failed.

Speaking earlier in the day, Ms White pointed out that the health system had undergone significant reform under Mr Ferguson’s watch — but the state’s health outcomes had not improved.

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Changes since 2014 have included disbanding the regional Tasmanian Health Organisations in favour of a single statewide Tasmanian Health Service, and removing some powers from local hospital management in favour of centralised services.

The government stepped back this reform and returned local decision-making to the state’s major hospitals in 2018.

Mr Ferguson conceded the government “did not get the balance right”.

Meanwhile, Franklin Greens MHA Rosalie Woodruff pointed to a letter the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation sent Mr Ferguson expressing their concerns about psychiatric emergency nursing vacancies.

Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff speaks in the Tasmanian parliament.

Only 2.69 FTE positions out of a possible 5.79 FTE were filled, the union said. Staff were stressed, and patients were suffering. The letter claimed there were three suicide attempts in an emergency department within two weeks at one hospital.