Nurse numbers not high enough in Tas.
Health analysts say Tasmanian Government staffing numbers have not risen to meet the workload.
Experts are pushing the government to hire more doctors and nurses, or put public safety at risk.
The Government’s own figures show the number of inpatients rose by 10 per cent in the 2013-14 financial year, but insiders say there are not enough people to meet it.
From mid-2014 to early 2015, the number of doctors employed in the state system dropped. The number of nurses rose in the same period, but were mostly clustered in the state's north.
Health policy analyst Martyn Goddard says the state’s health system is approaching a dangerous precipice.
“It's got to a point where our hospitals can't remain safe and our doctors and nurses are being driven into the ground,” he told ABC reporters.
Mr Goddard says Tasmania should use the recent $591 million GST windfall o hire 300 more nurses and 80 new doctors.
“We are now at crisis point, something has to be done about it, and we need far more doctors and far more nurses,” he said.
Tasmania’s Health Minister Michael Ferguson replied in a statement.
“Mr Goddard's analysis is flawed on a number of levels,” Ferguson’s statement reads.
“First, the number of nurses in our hospitals has not remained static, as he claims, it has in fact increased by 35 over the past year.
“Second, there are not savings of $54 million to health in this year's budget. The heavy lifting has been done and savings this year are just $14.2 million out of a $1.5 billion budget.
“Third, the GST windfall we received this year is untied funds, it is not specifically directed to health.
“To use these funds to hire more staff would condemn us to another Labor boom/bust cycle which brought about the budget mess that we are trying to fix.”
A white paper on health is in the works, and should be released by the end of the month.