Health workers at the Royal Hobart Hospital’s Wellington Clinics stopped work for an hour on Tuesday over the future of five fixed-term nursing positions.
The Health and Community Services Union says the medical specialist clinics are facing a 50% reduction, from 10 positions to five, as the contracts expire over coming weeks.
The Department of Health says a number of fixed term contracts in outpatients that were due to end will instead be extended by three months while it reviews staffing.
HACSU State Secretary Robbie Moore said the clinics keep patients out of hospital beds and emergency departments.
“These services are dealing with the most complex cases in our health system,” he said.
“The waiting list is already at 4,000 patients.”
Moore said the union met Royal Hobart Hospital management on Tuesday morning but the issue was not resolved.
A Department of Health spokesperson said staffing levels are always considered in the context of clinical demand, operational capacity and safe patient care.
“A number of fixed term contracts within Outpatients were due to end but will be extended by three months while a review of staffing is undertaken,” the spokesperson said.
The department says the review will determine the most appropriate staffing model and will involve a working group including staff and union representation.
Associate Nurse Unit Manager Rachel Saunders said the clinics had gone from 24 staff to about 11.
“We’re drowning with our waiting lists as it is,” she said.
Saunders said nurses in the clinics manage chronic disease to prevent hospital admissions and services would have to be reduced if any more staff were lost.
“They’re frightened at the moment,” she said of morale among nurses in the south.
Greens health spokesperson Cecily Rosol said the positions should stay.
“These are frontline healthcare roles that shouldn’t be cut,” Rosol said.
Rosol said the situation was a consequence of what she described as the Liberals’ $700 million of cuts to healthcare.
Health Minister Bridget Archer has consistently rejected claims health is being cut, pointing to a push to hire permanent staff and reduce reliance on agency and locum workers.
The government says Tasmania recruited almost 164 extra nurses and midwives and 73 additional doctors in 2025-26.
“When compared to 2024-25, there has been a $53.9 million reduction in spending on agency nurses and midwives and locum doctors in 2025-26, with service delivery maintained and our health workforce boosted,” Archer said in August.
