Four beds were shut at Launceston General Hospital over the weekend as a staffing shortage left the Acute Medical Unit with just seven nurses instead of the required 11.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) said Saturday morning’s shift was six staff short, forcing five nurses to work double shifts to cover the afternoon.
A Department of Health spokesperson blamed “winter respiratory illness peaks in the community”.
“Like any frontline health and emergency service, the Tasmanian Health Service can be impacted by staff absences, including unplanned sick leave,” a spokesperson said.
“There are well-established contingency plans in place to manage staff absences, ensure safe levels of staffing are maintained in our hospitals and patient care needs are met.”
But union secretary Emily Shepherd said the issue was more than just winter illness and that it related to long-term recruitment problems.
She said extra staffing benchmarks had not been put in place and jobs weren’t being filled quickly enough, leaving some nurses working shifts of up to 19 hours.
The union said members “have not made this request lightly” but the mix of short staffing, high patient needs and 1:1 nursing requirements meant “the risk to staff and patients is unacceptable”.
Hospital management initially resisted the closures but later agreed to limit admissions, the union said.
The ANMF identified contributing factors including “high sick leave and other leave coverage gaps”, “unsafe skill mix and rising patient acuity” and “prohibitive recruitment processes that are not being properly managed at the departmental level”.
Staffing pressure has also been reported in the emergency department and intensive care unit.
The union said staffing levels were expected to improve today.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said unplanned sick leave had “exacerbated the problem” and thanked employees for their efforts.
“There’s always increases and peaks in demand when it comes to our health system,” he said.
“Our health staff, particularly, work very hard under very trying conditions but we have protocols in place and management in place to ensure that we can address those peaks in health demand as they occur.”
