It will be the sixth no-confidence or censure motion debated in Parliament this year.

It follows revelations yesterday nurses had been instructed not to lobby patients on the elective surgery waiting list.

An email, obtained by the Liberal Party, provides a script for staff to follow in response to concerned elective surgery patients.

It states encouraging patients to write to politicians or make a complaint "are NOT appropriate".

Acting chief executive officer of the Southern Area Health Service Jane Holden said the email was prompted by the unplanned absence of a neurosurgeon, not budget cuts.

"There was no hospital-wide instruction given to nurses at the RHH (Royal Hobart Hospital) prohibiting them from lobbying patients to complain about budget savings," Ms Holden said.

The Liberal Party seized on the leaked email, claiming the government was attempting to gag nurses.

"Or is this just an attempt to bully nurses into being apologists for the Green-Labor government?" Liberal leader Will Hodgman said.

Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Neroli Ellis said the email reflected the culture of the RHH.

She accused management of "hiding the truth and (being) misleading".

The email was only distributed to a small number of senior nurses.

The Liberals also challenged the state government over ambulance response times in Parliament yesterday, after a Hobart doctor drove his patient to hospital because an ambulance took too long.

Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne said she was not aware of the case, but would investigate.

An ambulance arrived within 11 minutes and 24 seconds in response to half of emergency calls last financial year.

Ms O'Byrne said this was a 24-second increase from the previous year, but demand had increased with ambulances attending 73,485 times compared with 69,899.