Tasmanian’s hospitals are operating under dangerous conditions and patients have probably died because the system is overstretched, a Senate inquiry has been told.
The inquiry has been warned by a federally-funded health care provider that Tasmanians will be worse off under looming state and federal funding cuts.
The Labor-dominated inquiry is investigating the impact of Commonwealth funding cuts on hospital and health services.
It is estimated the Federal Government is cutting more than $2 billion from Tasmanian health funding over the next 20 years.
The State Government has set the Health and Human Services Department a $19 million savings target for this financial year.
Tasmanian nurses have repeated concerns that mistakes are being made by staff who are forced to work double shifts.
The nurses’ union estimates 500 double shifts were worked at the Royal Hobart Hospital in September.
She said stress and fatigue were leading to mistakes in hospitals, including in administering medication.
“It’s not just the medication errors, there are other errors particularly in ED (Emergency Department), particularly in wards,” Mrs Ellis said.
“Anecdotally we have had people say that people have died.”
The union said overworked nurses were not the only threat to patient safety as hospitals ran over capacity.
“Any hospital running at 105, 100 per cent capacity is dangerous,” she said.
“The recommended capacity for a hospital is 80 per cent and yet in Tasmania we’re consistently running at 100 or over 100 per cent capacity.”
The union raised concerns last month when the Tasmanian Government was urging them to take a pay freeze.
She said the long shifts were an extra cost burden and the Government should employ the more than 120 nurses looking for work.
The Tasmanian head of Medicare Local Phil Edmondson appeared at the Launceston hearing.
He said told the inquiry the current system was untenable and unsustainable, even before the coming budget cuts and would be worse off once the latest proposed cuts took effect.
“I think we’re talking about degrees of untenablity and unsustainability and I think realistically any cut, any change is going to make things worse,” he said.
On Monday in Hobart the Labor-dominated committee heard a private company had to shut down a cutting-edge medical imaging machine after state and federal governments spent millions to offer the same service.
Both governments are being warned that cutting health funding will end up costing more in the long run.
The committee is due to provide a final report in June 2016.