Extra GST money allocated for Tasmania’s health system has not been spent they way it was meant.

At the same time, a university study will look for waste within the state’s hospitals and EDs.

Tasmania is allocated extra GST revenue to bring it up to the national average for health funding, but new analysis says it is redirected to patch other parts of the struggling economy.

According to the report, $169 million will be spent outside of the health system that should have gone towards driving down waiting times and hiring more staff.

Analyst Martin Goddard says the GST is going into consolidated revenue.

He says that if the money went into Tasmanian health, 16,000 more patients could have been treated.

Health Minister Michael Ferguson blamed the findings of the report on the previous Labor Government, but the Greens say it shows such spending must be done appropriately in the future.

Meanwhile, the University of Tasmania has embarked on a $12 million federally-funded clinical redesign project, targeting acute care, elective surgery, and outpatient clinics.

The big review is designed to improve patient care, rather than save money, but the people behind it say that eliminating waste to boost services naturally reduces costs.

The major clinical design project will take a whole-of-hospital approach, scrutinising all processes from first contact to discharge.

The University of Tasmania has set up a new ‘Health Services Innovation Tasmania’ unit, which will work with health authorities and hospitals state-wide. 

The unit will operate out of three clinical redesign offices in Burnie, Launceston and Hobart.

Groups including the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation have pushed for all professionals to have a say on the project to increase its range of useful, tangible outcomes.