BY DAKOTA TAIT
Hunter nurses are slamming the NSW Government's new health spending and budget commitments, with concern it won't fix the healthcare crisis.
The Premier yesterday announced a $4.5 billion recruitment drive to find 10,000 new nurses, doctors, and other staff over the next four years, with $1.76 billion of that dedicated to paramedic personnel and new stations.
The wage increase cap for public sector workers will also be lifted from 2.5 to 3 percent, and then to 3.5 percent the year after.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association has been pushing for a 4.75 percent increase, however, still below inflation, which currently sits at 5.1 percent.
Dominic Perrottet has described the offer as "fair and reasonable", having to balance the interests of unions and the Government's financial bottom line.
But John Hunter Branch Secretary Rachel Hughes says it's insulting to nurses.
"Was it fair and responsible for all the bonuses that the state politicians got?" she said. "Bonuses between $5,000 and $160,000 each, while we struggled to get what we were entitled to with pay rises over the last two years."
"Where does this fair and responsible come in with the community and the patients that we're concerned about? Is he?"
The Government's also handing out a $3,000 payment to all public health workers, to say thanks for their work on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The union maintains, however, the Government's failed to meet their major demands, and the recruitment drive
Ms Hughes says the Premier is "tone-deaf" when it comes to their real concerns.
"Our biggest request was ratios to make it safer for patients and nurses, and we also asked for a pay rise that reinstated the pay cuts and freezes we'd had over the pandemic," she said.
"Unfortunately he failed to deliver on either of those."
"There will be further action. The response from the Government is just not enough."
 |
| Image credit: NSW Nurses and Midwives Association. |
