Claims that Launceston General Hospital records were falsified in a cover up is being investigated by the Department of Health, Health Minister Guy Barnett has said.
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His comments came after LGH nurse and midwife Amanda Duncan told a parliamentary committee inquiry that former head of medical services Dr Peter Renshaw was well known for altering the death certificates of patients that had died at the hospital.
He made the alterations in an apparent effort to protect failing doctors and protect the LGH from adverse coronial investigation findings.
"Recent claims hospital records were falsified to avoid involvement of a coronial inquest are extremely serious," Mr Barnett said.
"The Department of Health has advised me it is working to identify which cases are the subject of these claims.
"Once these cases are identified, they will be reviewed by an independent clinical expert to determine whether these cases are reportable deaths.
"If any deaths are identified as reportable, they will be referred ... to the coroner and all relevant authorities, including Tasmania Police, if a potential breach of the law is detected."
He said the Health Department will also appoint an independent expert to review death reporting procedures in Tasmanian hospitals.
"A general review of all deaths data at the Launceston General Hospital is also underway," Mr Barnett said.
Ms Duncan also told the House of Assembly Select Committee Inquiry into Transfer of Care Delays that a coronial investigation had not taken place after a patient died unexpectedly after a routine medical procedure.
She suggested that incident reports about the death and the actions of the anaesthetist involved never went further than Dr Renshaw.
Ms Duncan said she confronted the anaesthetist afterwards, saying she believed the death had been preventable.
She also told the inquiry that former junior doctors reported that Dr Renshaw had attempted to coerce them into falsifying cause of death in the emergency department on medical certificates.
The inquiry was formed last year, after scathing coroner's reports that attributed the deaths of two elderly patients to lengthy waits on the ambulance ramp when beds were unavailable inside the hospitals.
