The government's flagship election policy of banning ramping is off to a shaky start.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Tasmanian Industrial Commission has blocked the Department of Health from implementing the first phase of the change on Monday following a challenge by the nursing union.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian secretary Emily Shepherd said the Commission ruled that the Department of Health and Ambulance Tasmania had conducted insufficient consultation over the planned change.
She said her union had made an emergency application to freeze the start of the protocol over members' concerns that the protocol posed "significant risks" to patients.
"We respect that paramedics need to be freed to respond to triple-zero calls, but similarly, we can't be having ramped patients offloaded into under-resourced and understaffed emergency department corridors either," she said.
"Currently, most emergency departments and wards are not even achieving their minimum benchmarked staffing levels ... and what that ultimately means is our members will not be able to deliver quality and timely care.
"They are very concerned about patients suffering adverse events in corridors or dying because of those reasons."
She said there was already no clinical space for patients being ramped at present.
"The concern is that if we are parking patients in corridors and then alcoves and basically anywhere there is floor space, that doesn't necessarily mean there is available emergency equipment to be able to care for that patient."
The Industrial Commission will meet again on Monday morning to hear further submissions on the protocol.
Labor Franklin candidate Dean Winter said the Commission's decision meant the government's ramping policy was "in tatters".
"Fixing ambulance ramping can't be achieved by glib three word slogans," he said.
"Morale among health workers is at an all-time low and genuine solutions are needed across the entire health system.
"This means more resources throughout our major hospitals, and more resources in our regions to take pressure off our hospitals."
Health Minister Guy Barnett announced the new 60-minute ramping protocol in early February, and expanded on it during the election campaign.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said that the maximum time under the protocol would be reduced over time, to just 30 minutes by 2025.
Ms Shepherd said the ANMF challenge in the Industrial Commission centred around the claim that the Department had failed in its obligation to properly consult ANMF members over the change to a 60-minute protocol.
"The change proposal closed on Thursday evening, with the change to be implemented on Monday morning, so clearly that only gave us one business day to get a response from the Department to consult with our members," she said.
The case also put the ANMF at odds with the Health and Community Services Union, which joined the Department of Health and Ambulance Tasmania in opposing the ANMF application.
HACSU, whose members include paramedics, has supported the government's move to introduce the initial phase of the ramping ban protocol, which would mean that hospitals would be obliged to take over care of ambulance patients within 60 minutes of arrival.
Paramedics have long complained that long waits with their patients at hospitals - a practice known as ramping - saps their resources and contributes to slow ambulance response times.
Health Minister Guy Barnett said the government would work with the unions and the Tasmanian Industrial Commission to ensure that the 60-minute protocol was introduced.
"Unlike Labor, we have not given up on fixing ramping," he said.
"We will work with the unions and the Commission on implementation of the 60 minutes protocol.
"We will continue to work constructively with the unions, with clinicians, with hospital officials to ensure this is done safely and effectively."
