Another Launceston General Hospital emergency department specialist has resigned, making them the ninth of 11 emergency consultants to quit, retire or reduce their hours in the last month.
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The nursing union said six senior nurses had also left the department or reduced their hours due to a lack of senior support.
Australian Medical Association state vice president Stuart Day said doctors were struggling with stresses caused by a lack of resources with the bulk of emergency beds hosting patients who should be admitted to wards. The wards were too full to take any more patients, he said.
Dr Day said that, paired with a departmental request for the consultants to take a pay cut, had made working in emergency untenable.
“The actual workload is a big issue but on top of that to have salaries reduced by up to 20 per cent in some cases has meant people aren’t feeling valued,” he said.
“It’s taken five years to build up a functioning and highly effective team from previous levels so that’s a big problem because it’s going to take time to rebuild.”
Dr Day said it was important the government looked to better resource the LGH and that the state’s emergency department specialists were paid as much as their national counterparts.
Tasmanian Health Service chief executive David Alcorn said some LGH specialists were being paid more than the award and that the new pay rate was in line with what was paid in other states.
The THS is undertaking a statewide review into specialist pay.
“A number of meetings have occurred with staff flagging their intention to resign, and the THS executive is working with them to assess whether any barriers to them continuing to serve our patients at the LGH can be overcome,” Dr Alcorn said.
“We are all keen to improve hospital-wide care at the LGH and ensure that existing patient safety levels are not diminished.”
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation state secretary Neroli Ellis said: “There have been six senior nurses either leave the department or reduce their hours as a result of the lack of senior support when on shift and senior registered nurses wearing the brunt of the responsibilities each shift, the bed block due to insufficient funded ward beds resulting in the emergency department being constantly over capacity and the pressures of managing the emergency department.”
