Hit from both sides: Union strikes over failure to implement ban

Members of the Health and Community Services Union voted to strike followed a Tasmanian Industrial Commission decision this week to block the start of the government's 60-minute protocol.

If implemented, the protocol would have mandated hospitals to take over care of ambulance patients within 60 minutes of arrival.

But the protocol was challenged in the Industrial Commission by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Association Tasmania branch, who claimed that nurses had not been properly consulted before its scheduled implementation on Monday.

Commission president David Barclay ordered the Department of Health to delay implementation of the protocol until after further consultation had been carried out.

HACSU industrial manager Lucas Digney said the ANMF and other parties were scheduled to return to the industrial commission on April 9.

He said the 60-minute protocol would not be implemented until at least then - a situation he described as "intolerable" for paramedics, given the "deteriorating situation".

"We demand nothing short of immediate action to enable the nation's busiest ambulance workers to just be able to their jobs without being stuck in the emergency department," Mr Digney said.

He said the planned industrial action would mean paramedics would revert to their core jobs and would not allow work to be done on patients whose care has not officially transferred to the hospital.

"They will be doing what their job is rather than engaging in duties inside the hospital," Mr Digney said.

"They are not going to allow any work to be done on their patients ... because that's part of what's causing the inordinate delays to offloading patients."

Although ramped patients are still officially under the care of paramedics, they are often treated by doctors or nurses at the hospital.

"It's also causing really murky, grey areas in terms of who is actually responsible for the patient," Mr Digney said.