The Launceston General Hospital will close children's ward and intensive care unit beds this financial year.
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Some nurses will have shifts trimmed to six hours and nurse manager positions and emergency medical locums will be chopped under the latest wave of cuts revealed yesterday.
They come on top of the scrapping of the LGH's Hospital in the Home program announced last week.
The details came in yesterday's bulletin to LGH staff from chief executive John Kirwan.
The bulletin showed that _ apart from emergency, maternity and oncology services _ little will be quarantined from the savage cuts supposed to save $28 million this financial year.
It brought an angry response from nursing union chief Neroli Ellis, who said that the cuts were news to her and came without consultation.
The Australian Nursing Federation state secretary said the cuts would leave the LGH as no more than an emergency hospital by the end of the financial year.
It comes in a week when the LGH is already suffering from bed overflow, including at least two nights of ambulances banked up outside unable to unload patients.
Ambulance ramping has been common at the Royal Hobart Hospital but not at the LGH.
Mr Kirwan said the cuts outlined yesterday were the last for this financial year but senior staff were already looking to the next year.
They will be expected to trim the budget by about the same amount in 2012-13 as well as making up for any overruns this year.
Mr Kirwan's plan to achieve this year's budget savings includes:
- Shutting two operating theatres and 20 beds on two surgical wards.
- Shutting two intensive care unit beds.
- Cutting the number of children's ward beds to 17.
- No expansion of palliative care beds.
- Reduce pathology and radiology after-hours service.
- Rationalise attendants and orderlies.
- Change ICU shifts to reduce overtime.
- Merge nurse unit manager roles.
Mr Kirwan believes that he can make an extra $7.9 million by a number of revenue raising strategies that include charging for previously free allied health services and changing the starting time on fitting out the new acute medical unit to realise cash savings.
He estimates that the biggest savings of more than $13.7 million will come from shutting or reducing services.
He still hopes to find another funding source for 12 transitional aged care beds that are on the list of services to be scrapped.
``That has worked really well so that if we can keep it open, we will,'' he said.
