The ANMF Seeks Arbitration Over Unsafe Emergency Department Transfers; Doctors and Nurses Unite
12 January 2026
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Tasmanian Branch), supported by the Australian Medical Association, has escalated a longstanding safety dispute to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission today over the Tasmanian Government’s push to enforce a 45 minute Transfer of Care policy in Emergency Departments across the State.
ANMF Acting-Secretary Phoebe Mansell said as a result, patients are increasingly being transferred from ambulances into corridors, cupboards, and other non-clinical spaces, often without access to clinical monitoring or basic emergency equipment.
Local Resolution Attempts Exhausted
The ANMF has repeatedly attempted to resolve these issues locally.
At the direction of the Commission, the ANMF participated in two working group meetings intended to address both safety risks and required resourcing,” Ms Mansell said.
“Meaningful engagement did not occur. Consequently, the ANMF has lost confidence that THS is genuinely listening or seriously engaging with the risks faced by nurses.”
Ms Mansell said the decision to seek arbitration was necessary to protect safety.
“Our members are being asked shift after shift to deliver care in environments that are simply not safe. Patients are being moved into corridors and non-clinical spaces without adequate staffing, monitoring, or equipment, and nurses are expected to carry that risk.
“We have tried to resolve this locally, including through Commission directed working groups, but there has been no meaningful engagement.
“Even the region’s Chief Executives have acknowledged the current 60-minute timeframe is routinely not achieved, so forcing a 45-minute mandate would only make an unsafe situation worse.
“This should not be about time targets—it’s about safe staffing, access and flow, and ensuring transfers are based on clinical priority. Doctors and nurses are united in calling for a system that puts patient safety first.”
What the ANMF Is Seeking Through Arbitration
Having exhausted all local avenues, the ANMF has lodged an application with the Tasmanian Industrial Commission and is now seeking binding arbitration.
The remedies being sought – as preconditions to any change to the current Transfer of Care policy – include:
- Staffing all EDs to their agreed minimum safe staffing levels on every shift
- Ensuring patient transfers occur based on clinical priority, not arbitrary timeframes
- Providing nurses with a formal escalation pathway equivalent to that available to paramedics when they face resourcing challenges
- Immediate implementation of genuine access and flow solutions to address bed block and overcrowding
A System Responsibility
Ms Mansell said ramping is not the cause of this crisis – it is the symptom.
“Forcing unsafe transfers does not fix access or flow, it simply shifts risk onto clinicians already stretched beyond capacity.
“This is not a dispute between professional groups. Paramedics, nurses, and doctors are being left to negotiate who will accept responsibility for patients when there are no appropriate clinical spaces or staff.”
That responsibility sits squarely with the Tasmanian Government.
Ms Mansell said while hospitals across the country face similar pressures, Tasmania continues to rank among the worst performers for ED wait times.
“Now is not the time to place further pressure on an already broken system.
“Doctors and nurses stand united in their call for safety, accountability, and a healthcare system that works for patients.
“Nurses and doctors are trusted every day with life and death decisions.
“When they say current staffing is unsafe, that forced transfers put patients at risk, and that access and flow must be fixed now, they deserve to be listened to.”