Mental Health Hospital in the Home

The ANMF were happy to receive an update from Management on 9 October 2019, in relation to the Mental Health Hospital in the Home service. It appears that the service has been well received by consumers and their families and there is an intention to have a total of 12 ‘beds’ rolled out, hopefully by the end of the year.

Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) Updates

Department of Psychiatry (DoP)
A meeting was held with members working in the Department of Psychiatry (DoP) on 9 October 2019. During this meeting Work Health and Safety Concerns were discussed. Following this, the ANMF will be working with management to arrive at a long-term solution to ensure availability of duress alarms for every shift.

ANMF officials at the meeting also discussed with members the current status of the proposed workload model. Members were supportive of ‘Model 1’ which is based on maximum bed numbers on the existing site. If implemented, this would see an increase of 5.05 FTE. While members are supportive of this model in their existing space, they raised concern that the existing data would soon be inaccurate when DoP moves into K Block. This feedback will be taken to management and a report back to members will be provided via email or another scheduled member meeting.

Ward 8A Outpatient Oncology
The ANMF conducted a member meeting on 26 September 2019, to obtain feedback following a response from the Tasmanian Health Service regarding proposed changes to day/shift worker status. The ANMF will send further correspondence to management around our members ongoing concerns regarding this process.

Department of Emergency Medicine
The ANMF conducted a member meeting in the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) on Tuesday 17 September 2019. At this time, members raised concerns regarding their current workloads and staffing issues. The ANMF have sent formal correspondence to raise a step 1 workload grievance, to advocate for our members concerns. The ANMF will conduct a report back member meetings once a formal response from management has been received.

Change Proposal re: Governance Structure – Adult Mental Health Services South
The ANMF provided a response to the Change Proposal for the Southern Mental Health Service (SMHS) Governance Structures on 7 October 2019. This response collated feedback from all affected sites and sought to emphasise common points of concern amongst the membership. SMHS have since provided a response to these enquiries which the ANMF have been advised has been disseminated to nurses across the service. The ANMF encourage any members who have not received this document to request it from your various managers. For additional information or questions please contact the ANMF Member Support Team on membersupport@anmftas.org.au

Casual Pool
The ANMF have sent further formal correspondence to THS senior management outlining the numerous concerns of members around the clinical implications for the recently instigated 7-hour shifts for Casual nurses. The ANMF will organise a member meeting once a response to this letter has been received.

Ward 5A – Surgical Specialties/Orthopaedics
The ANMF conducted a member meeting in Ward 5A on Wednesday 9 October 2019. This meeting was well attended and provided the opportunity to prioritise all points of concern and determined a directive as to how best to pursue them. The ANMF Organisers will attend scheduled meetings with senior management in the following week to raise these issues and will liaise with Reps and members as to feedback received.

Updates correct as at 16 October 2019
Authorised by Emily Shepherd, ANMF Tasmanian Branch Secretary