LGH Emergency Department Staffing Fail and Patient Grid Lock
15 September 2025
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian Branch will again today be supporting members in the Launceston General Hospital Emergency Department, who have started the week with a completely full Emergency Department while working five nursing staff down.
“This is the third time in as many weeks that the LGH Emergency Department has been over capacity and expected to deliver high-quality care when staffing levels are well below their safe minimums,” ANMF Branch Secretary Emily Shepherd said.
“A full Emergency Department with all spaces full, including the three resuscitation bays, without minimum safe staffing levels is entirely unsafe, compromises patient care, and also puts patients at risk.
“The agreed Nursing Hours per Patient Presentation staffing model determines the minimum safe staffing levels, and it is incredibly disturbing that the Tasmanian Health Service continues to fail in meeting safe staffing minimums.”
Ms Shepherd said the reality is there continues to be an expectation on nursing staff and their colleagues to keep patients safe and provide quality care.
“Yet time and time again, our members are not provided the minimum resources to do so, while the Tasmanian Health Service continues to increase expectations on the timeliness of care delivery without addressing systemic failures.”
Ms Shepherd said the ANMF will meet with Health Minister Bridget Archer on Friday, September 19, to discuss systemic issues and potential immediate solutions, as well as longer-term initiatives that will address access and flow issues that have plagued the Tasmanian Health System for years.
“These initiatives will focus on holistic solutions from the community to discharge from acute care, rather than short-term stop-gap measures that simply transfer risk from one area of the system to another.
“However, today, the ANMF will focus on supporting our members in the LGH Emergency Department, whose Nurse Unit Manager resigned just last week citing ongoing frustrations with access and flow challenges, which have been left unmitigated for years.”