A new hospital protocol aimed at helping to facilitate the government's ban on ambulance ramping has been withdrawn a day after its introduction, after hospital bosses admitted making an error.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Priority Inpatient Transfer Hospitals Protocol was sent to southern hospital staff on Wednesday, and described how emergency department patients would be rapidly transferred to inpatient wards.
This was aimed at ensuring more ED space to ensure that ambulance patients are transferred to ED staff within 60 minutes - in line with the government's mandated ramping ban policy.
The government had hoped to begin the first phase of its so-called 'ramping ban' last week.
If implemented, it would have imposed mandatory 60-minute limits on the transfer of ambulance patients into the care of hospital staff.
But the policy was blocked by the Industrial Commission on its intended start date, after the nurses union launched legal action claiming they had not been properly consulted before the protocol's introduction.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmania branch spokesperson Emily Shepherd said the Industrial Commission had ordered the Tasmanian Health Service to maintain the "status quo" until after staff were consulted.
She said the policy announced on Wednesday would have breached that status quo order, but she confirmed that health bosses had already withdrawn the policy just hours after it was issued.
"We're comfortable that they've agreed to pull that today and get communications out to our staff," Ms Shepherd said.
"We raised the point that it would effectively be implementing a change, and at the moment we are still under the [Industrial Commission order for a] status quo."
Under the Priority Inpatient Transfer Hospitals Protocol released on Wednesday, ED patients would be rapidly transferred to another ward in order to make room for arriving ambulance patients.
It also allowed for inpatients to be transferred from the ED "with or without a nurse escort".
A spokesperson for the Health Department said the new protocol was sent to staff on Wednesday as part of preparations for the Easter long weekend, which is typically one of the busiest times for Tasmanian hospitals.
"As part of standard and responsible operational planning, the Royal Hobart Hospital released an internal plan to staff outlining a range of proactive measures in place to manage these demand pressures," the spokesman said.
"This plan referenced information regarding Transfer of Care protocols which was included in error and once identified immediately corrected."
Ms Shepherd said there had been "quite a few" errors recently regarding the THS' publication of protocols referencing the now-blocked 60-minute protocol.
She said health bosses at the Launceston General Hospital earlier this week enacted a protocol mandating the 60-minute transfer of care procedure, erroneously claiming that there had been no extension of the Industrial Commission's status quo order.
"So we had to approach them [at the LGH] to say the orders were handed down at the time in the Commission," Ms Shepherd said.
The Health Department spokesman said consultations on implementation of the 60-Minute Transfer of Care Procedure were continuing.
"While this process continues, all our hospitals continue to operate under the status quo, which includes our long-standing commitment to transfer patients arriving by ambulance to the care of hospital staff in a timely fashion."
