Adjournment - Dr Brian Herman

Thursday 29 October 2026

Ms ARMITAGE (Launceston) - Thank you, Mr President. Members here may recall the speech I made about Dr Brian Herman in April this year. At that time, I wanted to bring Dr Herman's work to the attention of the Chamber and the wider public as a world‑class interventional cardiologist. Dr Herman had just released his book, Becoming That Guy, which chronicled his time at the Launceston General Hospital, his journey from the Bronx in New York, and his time as a clinician, teacher, and innovator in the world of cardiology, all occurring in Launceston.

In the days and weeks following my speech and the aftermath of his book being released, Dr Herman was advised that his contract to work at the Launceston General Hospital as an interventional cardiologist would not be renewed in the new financial year. This prompted an outcry from dozens, even hundreds, of members of the public whose own lives or the life of a loved one had been saved by Dr Herman.

In a social media post by myself and Dr Herman's stepson, a nurse at the Launceston General Hospital, hundreds of likes, shares, and comments were universally in support of Dr Herman and highly critical of the decision not to renew his position. In June, the Department of Health's secretary said:

An additional full‑time cardiologist position had been created across both clinical and head of department roles at the LGH. At the time, I was quoted in The Examiner as saying that, 'Dr Herman was called before management and left shocked after being told his contract would end, as the Department looks to ‘clean up’ part-time roles and advertise a full-time position.

People like Dr Herman don’t just grow on trees.

And I called on the state government to intervene.

Unfortunately, this did not occur, and today I wish to provide the Chamber with an update on Dr Herman's endeavours to return to his long‑standing work within the Tasmanian Health Service working with patients who need acute care and management with their heart health.

Dr Herman obtained legal representation and took his case to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission, arguing that the non‑renewal of his contract effectively constituted unfair dismissal because he'd been on a fixed-term contract for 20 years and that he should have consequently been treated as a permanent employee.

Interestingly, there was no actual ruling provided by the commission on this as the government and the department did not provide any points to support their position to not renew Dr Herman's contract. It was therefore accepted that Dr Herman's position had to be restored. Subsequently, Dr Herman was rehired as a cardiologist at Launceston General Hospital

Albeit Dr Herman had only been away for three months, it was decided that he needed to be recredentialed - a process which is controlled by the Director of Medical Services - otherwise he would not be able to work clinically.

Even though it's accepted that Dr Herman's position needed to be restored, the THS stated that they had the right to reassign or redeploy him on the basis of what they considered to be clinical need, not on Dr Herman's skill set, experience, background, and abilities.

Consequently, the duties that were offered to him were not even close to a reasonable restoration of Dr Herman's previous position. The offers were:

(1)          Dr Herman would it do only outpatient work on half day a week at the LGH. For this offer, Dr Herman would spend more time driving than he would working, considering that he lives mostly in Hobart now.

(2)          Dr Herman would work one full Thursday every fortnight, being required to be at an 8.00 a.m. meeting, would do a small amount of work in the cath lab and then outpatient work in the afternoon, finishing work at 4:30 p.m. to drive home back to Hobart. This would mean a day starting at around 5.00 a.m. until 7.00 p.m. with no travel allowance or safety plan.

Given the issues which have been raised for long days, including driving on Tasmanian roads, for our health workers this year, including the fatal car crash of one doctor, the reasonableness of this offer is questionable to my mind. Surely, the safety and wellbeing of doctors who travel across the state to work, spending so much time on the road should be paramount.

Importantly, neither of these offers provide adequate time in theatre for Dr Herman, or for training other doctors in the very training program which Dr Herman established years ago and which is responsible for the world-class reputation Tasmanian cardiologists have.

To provide some context here as to what these offers mean to Dr Herman in terms of his experience and skill set, it would be like offering a specialist health practitioner with decades of experience in specific and critical area of health a position dealing with cuts, bruises and scrapes. It is simply not like-for-like in terms of the restoration of Dr Herman's previous position and duties, and is an insult to a person of Dr Herman's standing, experience and skill set. It does not correlate with the assignment of duties based on clinical need, given the growing need for cardiologists and the general deterioration of cardiac health in Tasmanians, about which we have hard, relevant and reliable data.

Understandably, Dr Herman turned both of these offers down. They had no relevance to his abilities as an interventional cardiologist, and he simply had no interest in them.

Given that Dr Herman was the head of the department for almost 20 years, there is additionally no grace, dignity or justification for the inadequacy of the offers he’s been presented with. To my mind, claims that these offers are based on the assignment of operational needs and efficiency simply don't hold water considering the serious and significant demands on the health system at this point in time. Our state's health system is simply not in a position for turning down cardiologists like Dr Herman who live here and want to work here. People need to have access to the experience in clinical skills people like Dr Herman possess.

I also question the creation of the advertisement of the new full‑time cardiologist position across both clinical and head of department roles at the Launceston General Hospital. This was occurring back in June. I'm unsure if this position has yet been filled and question what sort of applications might have been received for the position, particularly when we have an eminently qualified and experienced interventional cardiologist right here in the state.

Dr Herman might not be able to undertake such a position full-time, but could help fulfil some of the clinical needs this role demands while a suitable person is recruited to take on the position long term. Again, I don't believe our state is a position to turn down the experience and skills of people like Dr Herman. Mr President, I'm told Dr Herman feels targeted by these actions of the Tasmanian Health Service. Additionally, he's confident that he has the support of his colleagues, including fellow doctors, clinicians, nurses and support staff. Moreover, what is being argued here is a matter of hours per month, hours to allow Dr Herman to work with patients in theatre, saving lives and improving health outcomes and wellbeing of Tasmanians.

Finally, Mr President, I want to talk about cardiology wait lists. While the Tasmanian Health Dashboard does provide a good amount of information, what has been relevant is that in the past 6 to 12 months, wait lists for invasive and interventional services have only gotten worse, despite the operational efficiencies and needs that the THS says they are attempting to address. There are fewer elective angiograms being done every day. This then flows onto wait lists and means not just the numbers on that list are growing, but that people who have serious and urgent need to be seen for their heart health, a serious and integral need which can mean life or death, are also being required to wait longer. This is simply unacceptable.

In this time, the doctors employed in the THS, aside from Dr Herman, haven't changed. Support and technical staff haven't changed. Nurses haven't changed. Beds and other resources haven't significantly changed. I have every confidence in the staff we have working on our front lines, the doctors, nurses and technical staff. We see their dedication and commitment to patients and the practice of medicine every single day. I do, however, question how resourcing is occurring in our health system. This issue remains ongoing and I thank Dr Herman for his work with Tasmanians and within the Tasmanian health system. Dr Herman's contributions to our state are too significant to be ignored and I sincerely hope we see him meaningfully restored to his previous work within the Tasmanian health system sooner rather than later. Thank you.