An extra 40 full-time nurses are set to be employed at the Royal Hobart Hospital to help address issues such as nurses working double shifts.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson told State Parliament, the new jobs would help to ease the overtime burden.
“This will help provide cover for staff on sick leave, reducing pressure on casual nursing and on double shifts,” he said.
“The permanent pool will provide greater flexibility for wards to open beds to deal with change in demand providing greater staff availability.”
It comes after government documents showed 737 overtime hours were performed by intensive care unit staff at the hospital in April alone.
The nurses will be allocated to wards on the basis of need.
The Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s Neroli Ellis welcomed the move, but said Tasmania’s hospitals were still understaffed.
“It’s certainly one of the solutions we put forward in regards to addressing the untenable amount of double shifts that are currently being worked,” she said.
“Most wards are actually running short of nurses, they’re not fully employing to all of the positions which means there’s been a lot of pressure at the Royal [Hobart Hospital] over the last [few] months if not years.
“In reality it’s six shifts a day extra, that will help with short-term sick leave replacement but we still have many roster shortages which is actually what we’re working with the hospital management about.”
Questions raised over Mersey hospital funding
Meanwhile, the State Opposition has raised concerns about the certainty of Federal Government funding for Latrobe’s Mersey Hospital in Tasmania’s north-west.
Earlier this year the Federal Government agreed to fund the hospital for the next two years.
It is believed a discussion about the hospital was recently included in a Cabinet meeting agenda.
Labor’s Rebecca White told 936 ABC Hobart that raised suspicion.
“We were given assurances, as were all Tasmanians, that the agreement for the Mersey was certainly basically signed, sealed and delivered, the money was there, it was there for two years,” she said.
“The fact it is on the agenda for Federal Cabinet to give consideration [to] raises concerns with me, certainly suggests its not quite as clear cut.”
A spokesman for Health Minister Sussan Ley said the Federal Government is continuing to take the final steps to deliver the funding following the in-principle agreement in May.