Wrong Reform Wrong Time
The AMA is hearing directly from doctors that Emergency Departments across our state are buckling under demand, with pressures particularly acute at the Royal Hobart Hospital, where a critical capacity alert has been in place and extreme bed block has persisted for days.
Demand continues to exceed capacity, placing the system under sustained pressure and forcing staff to work well beyond normal operating conditions simply to keep patients safe.
The situation is already overwhelming, and it is only February. Predictable winter pressures are still to come, compounded by the additional strain of ongoing emergency department redevelopment works at both the Launceston General and the Royal Hobart Hospitals.
It is widely known that the North West Regional Hospital is already understaffed. Expecting it to see more patients faster without enough doctors is ludicrous.
Against this backdrop, it is deeply concerning that the Tasmanian Government continues to support changes that further reduce transfer of care timeframes.
This is the wrong reform at the wrong time.
When hospitals are operating at critical capacity, the priority must be to relieve pressure, not introduce changes that risk worsening conditions and adding to staff stress.
Bed block and ramping occur because there are no beds available within the hospital, a reality that is well understood. Less visible, but no less serious, are the downstream consequences: delayed patient care, escalating pressure on diagnostic services, flow on impacts to elective surgery, and deepening fatigue across an already exhausted workforce.
What is urgently needed is a clear, practical plan to stabilise and recover the system through effective patient flow initiatives not rushed political commitments that risk locking in a crisis level response.
Long‑term infrastructure plans are being used as an excuse, while patients and staff bear the consequences today. The Government must bring forward statewide health infrastructure delivery in line with the Clinical Services Plan across all three hospitals and invest in real capacity, not paper plans.
At the same time, the Government must commit to ending the farce of rebuilding the Royal Hobart Hospital, which is already too small and unable to cope with current demand, let alone future needs. Planning must begin now for a new major hospital with genuine surge capacity and a purpose‑built emergency department, instead of persisting with a retrofitted model that is fundamentally ill‑suited to modern emergency care standards.>>>ENDS
