Tasmanians urged to stay away from public hospitals amid high demand

Tasmanians are being urged to stay away from the state's two main public hospitals unless it's an emergency because of significant demand.

Transcript

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.

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