Former clinical director Dr Hannah Lake is leading a last-ditch effort to keep the Hobart Clinic open, just days before the private psychiatric facility is due to close its doors.
Dr Lake, who worked at the clinic from 2017 until late 2023 and served as clinical director for the past three years, is spearheading a coalition of psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, allied health professionals, the health union HACSU, and the Australian Medical Association. The group is urging the Tasmanian government to provide $2 million in emergency bridge funding to keep the clinic running for another six months while a new funding model is developed.
“We are looking to save private psychiatric services in southern Tasmania,” Dr Lake told the ABC, warning that the loss of the clinic would leave a critical gap in mental health care.
She noted that before the closure of Hobart’s St Helen’s Private Hospital two years ago, southern Tasmania had 66 private psychiatric beds compared with 99 in the public system. The shutdown of the Hobart Clinic would leave the region without any private inpatient psychiatric services.
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