Nursing staff notch nearly $1m overtime

TASMANIA’S nurses and midwives did more than 16,000 hours of overtime between May and June, costing the Tasmanian Health Service close to $1 million.

New Right to Information documents show that between the Royal Hobart, Launceston General, North West Regional and Mersey Community hospitals, nurses and midwives worked 8255 hours of overtime in June — costing $473,018.

In May, they worked 7822 hours of overtime at a cost of $441,471.

In both months, the LGH was the hardest hit, with 4451 hours of overtime recorded in May and 4168 in June. The RHH came in second, with 2281 in May and 2704 in June.

The documents also revealed that nurses and midwives in Tasmania’s public hospitals worked 424 double shifts in May and 379 in June.

In terms of sick leave, 22,767 hours were recorded by Tasmanian nurses and midwives in May, which increased to 23,745 in June.

Health and Community Services Union assistant state secretary Robbie Moore said the figures were not surprising, given the union received consistent feedback from members about double shifts and overtime.

“There are not enough permanent nurses and midwives in the system at the moment to cope with the health crisis,” Mr Moore said.

A THS spokesman said the service was focusing on short to medium-term recruitment strategies to minimise overtime and double shifts.

“Nurses and midwives have been affected by winter illness and rates of sick leave and carers’ leave have increased during this time,” he said.

“This does have an impact as it coincides with increased community demand in our hospitals.”