26 June 2019

Emergency Department (ED)
ANMF Executive Director Andrew Brakey, attended the Tasmanian Government access meeting on Wednesday 18 June 2019. The meeting included 60 individuals from all sides of the Tasmanian Government, Tasmanian Health Service (THS) Executive, Unions, THS staff, and other relevant parties. The meeting put forward a number of initiatives to improve patient flow and maximise Emergency Department (ED) efficiency, including work to streamline collaboration between hospital departments. However, the meeting was not able to address the impact of nursing shortages on improving flow. The ANMF maintain that providing a competitive wage will greatly assist in recruitment and retention of nurses to the state.

Department of Psychiatry (DoP) and Psychiatric Emergency Nurse’s (PEN’s)
The ANMF attended the final workload meeting for the Department of Psychiatry (DoP) yesterday. These meetings have been running since March after the situation with staffing on DoP had dropped to crisis levels. The ANMF are pleased to announce that the DoP has now reached full establishment and sick leave and double shifts have dropped away to manageable levels. Management report that staff on the unit are feeling happier about the staffing concerns.

Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work to be done for Psychiatric Emergency Nurse’s (PEN’s) in the Emergency Department (ED) who continue to experience a workload crisis and ongoing bed block problems. The ANMF recently met with the Minister for Health regarding the PEN. It appeared that the Minister understood and agreed that the PEN situation needed urgent attention.

The ANMF understands a full review of the PEN model will be commencing on Monday, with close support from the ANMF to occur on this review. A PEN working group meeting will be held monthly commencing ‪on 9 July 2019. A permanent PEN position will be advertised externally, with the job card currently under review. 1.5 FTE is currently covered by agency nurses and another 1 FTE will commence soon, with a contract for the position under development.

You can read the latest newsflash with more details about this by clicking here.