Ambulance ban to be decided by the Industrial Commission

8 July 2026

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian Branch (ANMF) will today attend the Tasmanian Industrial Commission following its dispute raised with the Commission over the State Government’s Ambulance Ramping Ban.

ANMF Tasmanian Branch Secretary, Emily Shepherd said the ANMF and AMA will outline their evidence and witnesses that need to be considered in this matter before the Tasmanian Industrial Commission.

“These submissions will focus on the questions needed to be addressed by the TIC – is the ban and the associated transfer of care policy safe?” Ms Shepherd said.

“The ANMF maintains the ban and mandated 60-minute offload policy is not safe when Emergency Departments are over capacity, there is no additional staff to care for these patients and often patients are parked on trolleys in corridors, in thoroughfares or spaces akin to a cupboard.”

AMA Tasmania’s Dr Byron Booth said everyone wants ambulances back on the road faster, but faster handovers alone will not fix the problem.

“Once the patient leaves the ambulance, where do they go?

“No matter how hard doctors, nurses, and paramedics work, we cannot unload patients into spaces that do not exist.

“Faster handovers alone will not fix this. We need to free up hospital beds so patients can move through the system safely from emergency departments, into hospital beds, and back into the community when they are ready.

“That is how we keep ambulances moving and patients safe.”

Dr Booth said this is not a dispute about whether patients coming into ED should be ramped or not.

“This dispute is about the ANMF’s and AMA’s call for the Tasmanian Government to improve access and flow across the entire health system, not just one section, so patients and health professionals are kept safe wherever care is being provided.

“We have always maintained this is not about stopping ambulances from doing their job. It is about making sure that when they bring patients to hospital, there is sufficient capacity to care for those patients safely.”

Ms Shepherd said the ANMF has sought to work collaboratively with the Department of Health for many years on this matter.

“We have sought discussions about access and flow initiatives that would ultimately increase flow across our health system and in turn resolve ambulance wait times.

“The ANMF has even formally requested of the Department of Health and the Health Minister to have access and flow included in the terms of reference for the transfer of care working groups.

“While this was accommodated after years of lobbying, the end result was presentations on initiatives that had already been implemented, not new ones.

“What we need is more initiatives focussed on improving flow.

“We need to see sub-acute facilities in each region to support step up needs for patients in the community and also as a step down for those in acute hospitals, including those who may be waiting for aged care placements.”

Ms Shepherd said the Government needs to invest more in community services that focus on hospital avoidance and living well at home.

“This includes Community Dementia Teams, Community Nursing (with Nurse Practitioners), Community Rapid Response and Hospital in the Home.

“These services need more reach and also more staff.

“State hospitals need to be set up to run 24/7 – not Monday to Friday 9-5.

“In this day and age with hospitals experiencing such high demand, we should not be waiting for a pathologist or radiologist to come in the next morning to do diagnostic bloods or imaging.

“This is not a Federal Government issue – it is mismanagement by the Tasmanian Government.”

The ANMF and AMA are well prepared for the upcoming hearing in the TIC and have many nurses and doctors prepared to provide evidence of the unsafe practice that this policy of the Tasmanian Government has resulted in.