Tasmania’s health union is warning that downgrading vacant allied health positions will blow out hospital waiting times and push more patients into emergency departments.
Robbie Moore, State Secretary of the Health and Community Services Union, said the Department of Health is replacing Level 3 allied health roles with Level 1 positions when they become vacant.
The change affects social workers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists who deal with complex cases.
“By downgrading these positions, it will mean they will see less patients,” Moore said.
“In some cases, it will mean they will see 80% less in patients who are in need of health services.”
Health Minister Bridget Archer said the union had been consulted during recent enterprise bargaining negotiations and rejected claims patient care would suffer.
“I would absolutely reject that there would be any reduction in patient service,” Archer said.
“This is part of workforce development planning for the future.”
Health Department Secretary Dale Webster said the allied health workforce had become too heavily weighted towards senior positions, making it difficult for graduates to find work in Tasmania.
“We are doing this on a job-by-job basis as they become vacant to do an analysis of what’s needed for the patients and for the future workforce,” Webster said.
“The worst thing for our patients will be not having a workforce in five or 10 years’ time.”
Webster said the plan had no connection to the $700 million in savings the department needs to find.
“This is unrelated to operational efficiencies,” he said.
“This is all about making sure we have a workforce for the future of the Tasmanian Health Service.”
Moore rejected the department’s reasoning, saying no new positions would be created.
“All they are doing is downgrading positions from Level 3 to Level 1, so there is no increase in positions at all,” he said.
Moore said lower-level staff, often fresh graduates, are not equipped to handle complex caseloads in areas like mental health.
“You cannot do that the day you leave university,” he said.
He also dismissed suggestions the union had agreed to the plan during bargaining talks.
“There was no agreed term to go ahead with this,” Moore said.
“We made it very clear to them that this will not work.”
