Labor claims two critical staff at Royal Hobart Hospital cut, prompting strong denial from Libs

A war of words has erupted over a claim from Labor and the health union that two critical staff have been cut at the Royal Hobart Hospital, with the state government labelling it a “lie”.

The Royal Hobart Hospital.

The Opposition has accused the state government of cutting two crucial jobs at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) but the Liberals have categorically denied the claim, calling it a “lie”.

It comes as the Health Department grapples with a deteriorating budget position, seeking to implement vacancy control in order to make savings. The Rockliff government has denied that this would amount to job cuts, with Health Minister Guy Barnett saying there is a “recruitment blitz” in health.

Labor health spokeswoman Ella Haddad said on Sunday that two of the five RHH critical cleaning staff – who are responsible for cleaning hospital rooms after they have been used by people with infectious diseases such as Covid-19 – were being “cut”.

“The government is going to cut this workforce almost in half, which is going to put added pressure on the staff remaining in that cleaning taskforce,” she said.

Ms Haddad said the alleged decision by the department would worsen bed and access block in the hospital.

Shadow Minister for Health Ella Haddad outside the RHH. Picture: Chris Kidd

“You have to ask the government if they don’t think that infectious disease specialist cleaning staff are frontline workers, what is a frontline worker to this government? The hospital can’t run without those beds and yet they’re going to cut the workforce in half who are responsible for this critical cleaning task,” she said.

Patrick Bradley, who is a cytotoxic and clinical waste technician at the RHH, as well as a delegate for the Health and Community Services Union, said he knew someone who worked for the hospital’s infection control unit and they had recently been approached by a manager, who told them “they’ve already lost one [worker] and they’re about to lose more”.

“My manager … said it is the exact result of the government’s [vacancy control] committee that they’ve put together that infection control has lost staff. They didn’t fill the vacancy quick enough so the jobs disappeared,” he said.

“It would knock your socks off if you knew how understaffed this hospital is. It is at a dangerous level.”

The government has fired back at the claims from Labor and the union, with Liberal frontbencher Nick Duigan labelling them “more Labor lies”.

Energy and Renewables Minister Nick Duigan. Picture: Stephanie Dalton

“There will be no cuts, as I’m advised, to those services,” he said.

“And what we’re doing is recruiting more doctors, more nurses, more paramedics, more police officers. There will be more frontline services being offered by this government in the coming weeks, months, and years ahead.”

“These are absolute lies and negativity being spread by the Labor Party. And I think they really need to look at where they’re going with that. We’ve seen that that hasn’t been a great strategy for them in the past.”