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<\/p>\nTasmania’s top health official says the Launceston General Hospital is experiencing “impacted” capacity and is urging patients to only attend if it is a medical emergency.<\/p>\n
“The Launceston General Hospital is currently experiencing high demand for services, particularly patients with acute health needs,” Health Secretary Dale Webster said on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
“At present, clinical services are being managed at the hospital but capacity is impacted, limiting our ability to admit more patients.”<\/p>\n
Mr Webster directed people who cannot wait for an appointment with their general practitioner to the state’s eight bulk-billed Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.<\/p>\n
The Tasmanian branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation said it understood only three beds were available across the entire hospital on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
“The hospital is at critical capacity both in the emergency department but more broadly right across the hospital,” branch secretary Emily Shepherd said.<\/p>\n
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People are being urged to only attend the hospital if it is an emergency. (ABC News: Georgia Hogge)<\/p>\n
Ms Shepherd said issues such as this occurred due to “ongoing access and flow block”.<\/p>\n
“Effectively, there’s exceeding demand for health care through the Launceston General Hospital and insufficient capacity and flow,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The ANMF have been calling for initiatives to improve access and flow for years now, and none of those strategies have actually been picked up.”<\/p>\n
She said the hospital had been at critical capacity for four weeks.<\/p>\n