Maitland Hospital Staff Hold Rally For Better Staffing Conditions

BY JACK SEYMOUR

Nurses and midwives have staged a rally outside Maitland Hospital this morning to call for better staffing conditions.

The one-hour demonstration included the hospital's night shift staff and workers on their rostered day off, as well as supporters from the community.

The walk-out comes after continued calls for change to working conditions for staff dating back eighteen months.

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Maitland Branch Secretary Monique Murray says the dire conditions staff are facing could have a serious impact on the community needing to receive care.

"It's the community unfortunately who will also suffer from this. They're the ones who are coming to our hospitals needing our care when they're at their most vulnerable," she said. 

"If our nurses are struggling to deliver that care then it flows down to our patients. It has a worse outcome for their health, it extends their hospital stay and they're not getting their needs met...because they just haven't got the capacity."

The rally had no impact on the day's hospital services.

Essential Hunter Workers Call to Scrap the Public Sector Wage Cap

BY OLIVIA DILLON

Essential workers from the Hunter gathered at the John Hunter Hospital this morning, in a bid to address issues surrounding wages and staff shortages. 

Ahead of the event, Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey, launched a new report, detailing how much health and education workers will be out-of-pocket if the wage cap for public sector workers isn't scrapped. 

The research into the impact of the wage cap on the pay packets of essential workers shows it will leave nurses, paramedics and teachers worse-off by between $10,000 and $12,000 dollars when adjusted for inflation over 3 years.

It also details how the 3% wage cap is adding to critical staff shortages, noting vacancies for education professionals in the region have tripled. 

Mark Morey said something needs to be done. 

"We're calling on the NSW Government to get rid of the cap, and to negotiate wage increases for its essential workers," he said. 

He said scrapping the cap is the only way to address mass vacancies across the Hunter. 

Image: Newcastle Herald

Maitland Hospital in Crisis

BY OLIVIA DILLON

Staff shortages and mammoth wait times are causing a crisis at Maitland Hospital. 

New data has revealed the new facility had the highest number of admissions leave without treatment (2,481) in the state between July and September last year. 

Port Stephens MP Kate Washington, said the lengthy wait times are risking the lives of Hunter residents, and a Labor state government would address the issues. 

"We have already committed to mandatory safe-staffing ratios of nurses in hospitals, because we know that it's not bricks and mortar that save lives, it's the nurses and doctors, and people that work within them," Ms Washington said. 

"The Liberal Government has built this massive hospital, but they have just not staffed it properly."

Since opening at it's new site, the hospital has seen an 83% rise in walk-outs without treatment. 

Hunter nurses say budget commitments aren't enough to solve healthcare crisis

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.

Nurses raise alarm New Maitland Hospital could struggle to make accreditation

BY DAKOTA TAIT

New Maitland Hospital is undergoing accreditation this week, but it's feared issues around staffing and resourcing could mean the hospital will struggle to meet the standards.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care is examining eight standards, including clinical governance, infection control, communication for safety, and comprehensive care.

But staff have raised the alarm the audit doesn't take ongoing issues at the hospital into account when making a judgement.

Detailed outcomes of the audits are also not made public to allowed to be discussed with the media.

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Branch Secretary Kathy Chapman says staff shouldn't have to pick up the slack.

"This is often where accountability is directed - to the nurses," Ms Chapman said. 

"We feel that it's just another opportunity for the Perrottet Government to tell our crippling health care system, our Maitland Hospital, to do better with less."

"We do shine our shoes to make things good."

It's understood, long wait times in the emergency department and outpatient clinics, surge capacity levels in wards, and heavy workloads have become the norm at the hospital.

Hunter New England Health has maintained demand for services has not increased since moving from the original Maitland Hospital to Metford, which only opened earlier this year.

Nurses insist, however, the catchment area has expanded without an appropriate increase to staffing.

Ms Chapman says it's very possible the hospital will fall short in a number of areas.

"I reckon it would be embarrassing, for a start," Ms Chapman said. 

"What does it tell our community? What have we been given? What resources haven't we been given to meet the needs of our community, our patients?"

"It's just really sad to watch every day how those needs aren't met."

Image credit: newmaitlandhospital.health.nsw.gov.au

John Hunter staff calling for government action on International Day of the Midwife

BY DAKOTA TAIT

It's International Day of the Midwife, but staff at the John Hunter Hospital are marking the day with a rally, rather than a celebration.

It comes as the Nurses and Midwives Association continues its industrial campaign, calling on the State Government to improve conditions, fix staff shortages, and deliver better staff-to-patient ratios.

Members gathered outside the John Hunter on Thursday afternoon.

John Hunter Branch Secretary Rachel Hughes says staff have had enough of not being listened to.

"The theme for today is 100 years of progress," Ms Hughes said. "Unfortunately, it feels like we're going backwards."

"It's a pretty sad theme to have the way things are at the moment."

The union is also calling for babies to be counted when it comes to calculating ratios.

It's understood, if mothers have more than the one child, a midwife could be looking after as many as eight mothers, or twelve babies.

It's hoped a push for investment in more clinical educators and better conditions could prompt an influx of fresh faces into the sector.

But Ms Hughes says the Government refuses to come to the table and meet them on the demands.

"We seem to be the last on their long list of pay rises," Ms Hughes said. "[The NSW Coalition Government] gave themselves another ten percent pay rise."

"We can't even get our 2.5 percent - they froze that at the start of the pandemic to 0.3 percent as a slap in the face.

"Now we're asking for, to not even keep up with inflation. Inflation's 5.1 percent - we're asking for 4.75 percent pay rise."

Image credit: NSW Nurses and Midwives Association

Hunter nurses and midwives walk off job for better conditions

BY DAKOTA TAIT

Nurses and midwives are joining their coworkers across the State for a strike on Tuesday, in a push for improved conditions, better nurse-to-patient ratios, and a pay rise.

23 branches of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association across the Hunter New England Health District are taking part in the action. 

Maitland Branch Secretary Kathy Chapman says the Premier needs to listen to what's being said.

"We're calling on him to actually open his eyes, and stop making out that everything's okay in our hospitals," Ms Chapman said.

"We want one nurse to have a mandatory maximum to look after four patients, and in ED, we want our emergency nurses not to have to look after six or seven patients, but three."

The John Hunter Hospital's emergency department will run on minimal staffing for twelve hours, while the rest of the hospital will join Maitland, James Fletcher, Belmont, and Muswellbrook for a full 24 hours strike.

Staff at Lower Hunter Community Health and the Waratah Mental Health Centre will put down the tools for just eight-and-a-half hours.

Ms Chapman says the fight's not just for nurses.

"Midwives might look after six mothers who have just birthed, but also if they have one to two babies, they're looking after them as well, and they're not all born healthy," Ms Chapman said.

"We want him to open his eyes, we want one to four on the floor, one to three in ED, and we want babies to count."

A rally will be held at Civic Park in Newcastle at 10am this morning.

Image credit: HNE Health