Easing border restrictions for FIFO health staff could help staff struggling hospitals

Australia’s peak medical lobby body says health professionals need to be exempt from Tasmania’s strict border restrictions, as regional hospitals struggle to find staff to keep them operating.

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AUSTRALIA’S peak medical body says health professionals need to be exempt from border restrictions as rural hospitals like Latrobe’s Mersey Community Hospital struggle to get the locums they need to operate.

President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia John Hall says the workforce shortage cannot go on long-term.

“Many, many rural medical services all across Australia are assisted and sustained by locum doctors, travelling specialists or regular FIFO or DIDO doctors or nursing staff,” Dr Hall said.

“These doctors and nurses keep the services available and combined with more staff away from work, because as soon as they have any cold or flu-like symptoms they have to stay away and take a COVID test, this is reducing some staffing levels to breaking point.

“Exemptions for health workers, as well as patients seeking medical care, are urgently needed across all states.”

Mersey Community Hospital at Latrobe.

His call comes as Tasmanian Labor launched a petition to restore the Mersey Community Hospital’s 24-hour emergency department which will now only open between 10am and 6pm due to a lack of locum staff.

Braddon MP Anita Dow said health services in the North West were already compromised before COVID-19 but the pandemic had shone a spotlight on the over-reliance on locums.

“With the (emergency department’s) operating hours reduced locals have no option but to travel to, or be taken by ambulance to Burnie or Launceston if they have a medical emergency after business hours,” Ms Dow said.

Labor member Anita Dow.

Health Minister Sarah Courtney said the government was committed to reopening the Mersey’s emergency department as a 24 hour facility but needed the appropriate medical staff available to do so safely.

In the meantime open recruitment for permanent medical roles at the Mersey were continuing, Ms Courtney said.

Braddon MP Shane Broad said a lack of locum staff was not a new issue in the state’s North West and the government should have been working to address it before the further complications of COVID-19.

“They’re relying on the goodwill and professionalism of staff at the Launceston General Hospital and the North West Regional Hospital to care for people diverted from the Mersey,” Dr Broad said.

“And they expect them to provide that care with no extra resources and no additional beds. This decision will result in bed block at those hospitals, ambulance ramping and unsustainable working hours for paramedics.”