Patients being transported by emergency helicopter to Launceston's major hospital will have to also take a 12-kilometre ambulance journey because the existing helipad no longer complies with updated safety regulations.
Updated Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulations mean the helipad, currently located in Ockerby Gardens next to the hospital, does not comply with requirements due to its size, location and lighting.
Instead, patients will be flown into the Launceston Airport, a 10-minute drive away from the hospital.
Deputy Secretary of Infrastructure Shane Gregory said Ambulance Tasmania was "assessing the viability of an alternate landing site close to LGH".
"Importantly there is a freeway corridor which covers most of the route between the Airport and the LGH providing fast and efficient transfer," he said in a statement.
"I want to reassure the community the helicopter service will still be available for patients from across Tasmanian communities who require urgent aero-medical transport to Launceston or transfer to Royal Hobart Hospital, for definitive care, as efficiently as possible."
The department said the LGH helipad was a "critical resource", and is used around 30 times per year.
Vice-president of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Medical Association Annette Barratt said the relocation of the helipad was concerning and would have an impact on patient care.
"That will add extra delays to people getting vital treatment ... it will take a good 5 to 10 minutes to get from the airport into Launceston General," she said.
"That can be the difference between life or death and it can be the difference between getting onto the best treatment as quickly as possible."
A review of the helipad's operation, and planning to upgrade it, is included in stage two of the LGH masterplan, a road map for the development of the precinct over the next 20 years.
'No way' LGH development being delivered soon
Labor spokesperson and state member for Bass Michelle O'Byrne said it was "inconceivable" the government did not see the changes to CASA regulations coming.
"It's hardly something that they do in secret, it would have been well consulted," she said.
She said the government's plan to relocate the helipad back to the hospital as part of the stage two master plan was not good enough.
"There is no way stage two is being delivered in the immediate sense. This is a project that, if they ever get the funding, is years and years away," she said.
"The government knows that. So to say that it will be funded in stage two is dishonest and unfair.
"To expect people in the north of Tasmania to have a reduced service because they've promised things they're not delivering … is absolutely offensive."
The Tasmanian government has promised $580 million toward the redevelopment of the hospital over 10 years, and $50 million has been earmarked in the 2022-23 budget to stage two of the project.
"Most of that isn't until the outer years of the forward estimates," Ms O'Byrne said.
Nurses 'blindsided'
The nurses union said its members were "blindsided" by the announcement, which could impact a system already under strain.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian branch secretary Emily Shepherd said she wanted to know how the movement of patients would be resourced.
"With an off-site helipad, that means there will need to be two transfers, out of a helicopter and into an ambulance and [then] through to the LGH emergency department," she said.
"It potentially does mean that there's going to be a retrieval team that has to assist in that transfer and we have to better understand what that looks like."
A government spokesperson said the temporary relocation that was necessary to comply with updated CASA regulations that came into effect on the first day of the year.
"It will ensure patients can still receive the care they need while complying with the updated regulations," the spokesperson said.
"The department continues to explore alternative landing sites closer to the LGH as a further temporary solution in the short-, medium- and longer-terms while stage two of the LGH masterplan progresses."
Once a cemetery believed to be Australia's third-oldest, the Ockerby Gardens location attracted significant controversy when it was announced more than 20 years ago.
