Health professionals and the Labor party have renewed calls to introduce a new escalation protocol at the Launceston General Hospital.
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Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation branch secretary Emily Shepherd said hospital staff want to introduce an additional level of escalation, a level four, as was introduced to the Royal Hobart Hospital in 2017.
Ms Shepherd said staff attempted to call an internal emergency, a code yellow, at the hospital three weeks ago seeking additional support to move patients out of the emergency department.
"Essentially the level four escalation as is in place in the RHH allows that process to be done in a more methodical way," Ms Shepherd said.
"That was put in place [at the RHH] due to the same issues we see here at the LGH."
ANMF delegate and enrolled nurse working in the LGH ED Jim Ivers said a new escalation protocol would allow for a structured response when the hospital was under pressure.
"A level four will give a structured sequence of events which have to happen when we reach that crisis point rather than putting together something on the spot," Mr Ivers said.
Mr Ivers said the ED was an overcrowded and difficult to work in area with the triage area congested and beds given to Ambulance Tasmania to house ramped patients as the result of bed block.
"People are being seen in areas that are clinically inappropriate," he said.
"Some people are stuck in the ED for three or four days."
Labor deputy leader Michelle O'Byrne said the LGH needed a new escalation level in place to respond to the state's health crisis.
"It identifies how much of a crisis we are in and sends a message to the staff that the government and management understand and support them," Ms O'Byrne said.
Ms O'Byrne said if the government failed to review the LGH's escalation protocols the Labor party would introduce a motion into the Parliament in support of an additional escalation level at the hospital.
Government minister Guy Barnett said a review of escalation protocols was an operational matter that would be considered by the experts.
"We know there are pressures and that's why we are investing more [in health]," Mr Barnett said.