A nurses' union representative says the staffing situation in the Tasmanian health system is the worst she has seen in 15 years and has created an "unsafe" environment for nurses and patients.
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The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation's proposal to address a vacancy rate of 400 positions has been adopted by Labor and the Greens, but they were yet to receive a response from the Liberal party.
The three-point plan involves recruiting an additional 400 nurses with the support of clinical educators, establishing nursing and midwifery recruitment units in each region and adding a nursing and midwifery role to the Health Department's executive team.
Kylie Stubbs, who works in the operating room suite at Launceston General Hospital and is an ANMF representative, said nurses in all departments were "overwhelmed".
"Every year it just gets worse, nothing is getting better," she said.
"We have nurses that are leaving the profession, we are unable to get new nurses to come and work here, and it's just compounding problems.
"That means that we work in unsafe situations. We are required to have a certain amount of nurses that work on the floor each day to provide that safe patient care. When we don't have that, effectively we are providing unsafe care and that is not what we want to do.
The Tasmanian Greens proposed adding 730 nurses into the health system by funding 600 graduate nurses to work in the state's system, 120 permanent nurses and 10 psychiatric emergency nurses.
Labor plans to recruit 325 nurses with permanent jobs and 70 specialist doctors.
Labor leader Rebecca White said Tasmania had the workforce to full these positions.
"We graduate from the University of Tasmania - every single year - nurses, paramedics and other health professionals who aren't given a job in the Tasmanian health system. We actually have a trained workforce who are leaving the state to have careers elsewhere," she said.
The Liberal party has proposed employing 160 nurses, 14 doctors and 30 allied health staff, and 70 more hospital support staff. The party also plans to start the next stages of the LGH master plan in the next financial year, and facilitate a new co-located private hospital adjacent to the LGH.
Health Minister Sarah Courtney said the government had recruited 760 additional nurses.
"We were pleased to receive their letter this week, and will be responding to it," she said.
"At the LGH, we have increased the number of nurses by 30% since 2014, including more than 100 FTE new nurses recruited since 2018.
"We have a plan to recruit, with a new Health Recruitment Taskforce, which will look at how we can recruit, retain and support more nurses for our health system."