Hundreds of nurses and midwives at John Hunter Hospital have staged a rally during their lunch-break in protest of chronic understaffing.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) has found patients missed out on nearly 7000 hours of nursing care between December 2016 and July 2017, breaching the Public Health System Nurses and Midwives Award.
"Under the...Award, public hospitals must provide a minimum number of nursing hours per patient each day, in most wards at John Hunter the minimum is 6.0 nursing hours, yet Hunter New England Local Health District failed to deliver it repeatedly," said NSWNMA General Secretary Brett Holmes.
This follows an audit conducted at Belmont Hospital which revealed the hospital is operating with less than the minimum number of nurses required.
Members of the NSWNMA say nurses and midwives have reached breaking point, which is ultimately impacting patient care.
"The level of understaffing at John Hunter cannot continue," argued Brett. "Our members are fed up with inadequate levels of patient care, the opening of unfunded and understaffed beds, forced excessive overtime, sick leave not being replaced, an excessive use of underqualified staff, missed meal breaks and unpaid overtime."
The NSWNMA are calling on Hunter New England LHD to employ more nurses as soon as possible to fix this problem.
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| Photo courtesy of Sarah James |
