A Health Department spokesman said late yesterday that all three of the state's major public hospitals had contingency plans in place to cope with the industrial action.

Australian Nursing Federation Tasmanian secretary Neroli Ellis said that there was no way that the three hospitals could cope without nurses working overtime and double shifts.

``They (the hospitals) can't get any (nurse) relief anywhere, which is pretty indicative of how the system is already so reliant on overtime - that's why we are doing it,'' Ms Ellis said.

``We are trying to expose the system breakdown.''

The overtime bans are part of the ANF's industrial action decided on unanimously by nurses at meetings around the state last week to protest over the major staff and bed cuts being made by hospitals to achieve their required budget savings.

The department spokesman said that the Launceston General Hospital had not needed to cancel elective surgery or transfer patients to other facilities to cope with the overtime bans.

``However, this will be reviewed each day,'' he said.

At both the North-West General and the Royal Hobart hospitals, additional staff have been rostered to cover the period of the bans including hospital aides, casual nursing staff and ward attendants.

The North-West General and the Mersey Hospital will work together to address staffing shortfalls through pooled resources.

Patients transfers between hospitals will take place if necessary.

Some non-urgent elective surgery has already been cancelled so that staff can be redeployed to emergency, high dependency and intensive care units.

The Royal Hobart Hospital has rostered on extra ward clerks and volunteers have been asked to help boost numbers.

Ms Ellis said that the overtime bans will take place from 2.30pm.

She believes it will be a one-off action at this stage to highlight the dire situation of the hospitals even before major budget cuts are implemented.