More nurses, midwives and doctors are being recruited to the Tasmanian Health Service, boosting the State’s highly skilled health workforce while reducing costs for agency and locum staff.
During the 2025-26 financial year, the number of full-time equivalent nursing and midwifery staff employed across Tasmania increased by 163.52 FTE compared to 2024-25.
This increase in nurses and midwives has delivered a more than $36 million reduction on agency staff in 2025-26 compared to 2024-25.
The Department of Health saved $17.9 million on medical locums during 2025-26 compared to the previous financial year, while increasing the doctor workforce by 73 full-time equivalent staff.
Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Bridget Archer said this is another demonstration of our ongoing commitment to investing in frontline staff, while also being more efficient across our health service.
“Through our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, we are delivering more healthcare workers across the system,” Minister Archer said.
“Reducing the cost of locum and agency staff has been a key focus in recent years.
“While engaging agency and locum staff is sometimes necessary to ensure the health and safety of Tasmanians, we are actively working to reduce this wherever possible.
“We continue to increase the number of full-time health workers to ensure services are delivered more efficiently and our plan is working.
“When compared to 2024-25, there has been a $53.9 million reduction in spending on agency nurses and midwives and locum doctors in 2025-26, with service delivery maintained and our health workforce boosted.
“It’s more proof we are investing in the services Tasmanians need while finding practical savings.”
There are a number of other initiatives underway within the Department of Health to enhance the delivery and efficiency of health services, including the Rostering Improvement Program which aims to reduce the amount of overtime hours among nurses and midwives.
