Tasmanians are being urged to stay away from the state's two main public hospitals unless it's an emergency because of significant demand.
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00:00 The health department came out last night and has urged Tasmanians to stay away from
00:07 the emergency departments at two of Tasmania's biggest public hospitals unless absolutely
00:13 necessary.
00:14 And that's due to a surge in demand.
00:17 So the department has said that at the moment there's been unplanned staff absences, noting
00:24 that COVID-19, also the flu and also seasonal illnesses means that a lot more staff are
00:30 off sick than they originally had catered for.
00:34 They also said that the department's ability to actually get patients off the wards and
00:39 back into aged care facilities is proving difficult.
00:44 They're waiting for aged care facilities to open up placements for them.
00:49 And they've also said that there are a number of patients and an above average number of
00:54 patients on the NDIS that are waiting for approvals and also assessments to be done
01:00 before they can actually leave hospital.
01:02 So all of the above, it's just a combination that's proving to be very, very challenging
01:07 for our healthcare workers at the moment.
01:10 What's been the response, Liz?
01:14 So this morning we heard from Tasmania's nurses union who said that the current situation
01:20 in emergency departments at Tasmania's public hospitals is actually the worst it's ever
01:26 been.
01:27 So Emily Shepard from the Nursing and Midwifery Federation said that at the moment staff are
01:32 doing everything they can, they're working around the clock, but they just can't keep
01:37 up with demand.
01:39 She said that there's a number of reasons for this.
01:42 It's because that there's a high number of staff at the moment that, or a high number
01:48 of patients rather, that are presenting to emergency departments.
01:52 So that's been an increase in that.
01:54 She also said though that there is actually a lack of staff that can actually keep up
02:00 with the rosters.
02:01 She said that quite often they don't have enough healthcare workers to be able to care
02:06 for the number of patients that are coming in, but it's been an ongoing challenging situation
02:11 for them.
02:12 Now the health department of course is assuring the community that the demands of people presenting
02:18 to emergency departments will be met, but also that it will effectively manage elective
02:23 surgeries.
02:24 Though Tasmanians are being encouraged, as we said earlier, to try and avoid the emergency
02:30 departments if they can, to either call HealthDirect, to go to an after hours clinic in Launceston
02:36 and Hobart, but also to go to their GP.
02:40 But as we know in Tasmania and also nationwide at the moment, there's some long wait lists
02:45 and also staff at GP clinics is another challenge.
02:49 So it's an ongoing situation that's being managed here.
02:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]