Nurses and Midwives Protest Missing Care Hours

BY SARAH JAMES

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.

Photo courtesy of Sarah James

Protest ends peacefully

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Police say their presence at coal stockpiles in Newcastle early this morning was warranted after Greenpeace and other protestors chose the huge stockpile to send a message to the Commonwealth Bank.

Protestors took aim at the bank, unfurling a banner which read "COMM BANKS COAL KILLS" after discovering the bank loaned $310 million to the port in 2014.

It's everyone's democratic right to protest, and police agree, but only while it stays within the rules of the law which wasn't the case in Newcastle this morning.

"Certainly lawful protests and peaceful protest is a democratic right and we certainly support that - it only becomes an issue when there is unlawful conduct such as going to someone else's place, or you know attacking vehicles or any other sort of criminal conduct," said Chief Inspector Trevor Shields.

Chief Inspector Trevor Shields says the arrests police made were warranted since they had trespassed on land.

Protesters fight noise with noise

BY TYLER FARDELL

A residents group against the V8 Supercars coming to Newcastle have made their complaints loud and clear after an event this morning.

A recording of supercars equal to the sound levels residents close to the race will experience was played at the protest along Scott Street.

Residents close to the race could experience sounds up to 105 decibels, which spokesperson John Beach for the Novocastrians against street racing group says is too much.

"You literally can't stand it. Even with ear plugs it's beyond human endurance, and yet this is going to be right outside people's houses for many hours".

Around 200 people gathered at the event, with tensions boiling over into a small incident.

A woman was reportedly waving a racing flag around while there was a small scuffle between protesters and racing fans.

Rally to Save Maitland Hospital

BY SARAH BARONOWSKI

Hundreds of health workers, unionists and community members are expected to join together at Maitland Park this Sunday to protest the privatisation of Maitland Hospital.

The "Keep Our Hospitals Public" rally will be held from 12 noon to 2pm with the hopes of bringing the community together on this issue.

NSW Health Services Union Secretary, Gerard Hayes. [Image:Image: http://www.2gb.com/article/gerard-hayes-%E2%80%93
-secretary-health-services-union]

NSW Health Services Union Secretary, Gerard Hayes says it is important for people to band together. 

"No individual can win this, this is a community issue," he said. "They own that hospital. It's not for the government to give away but the only way we can fight this is by coming together as a community.

"We need to ensure that services at Maitland hospital are maintained and extended, not moved to John Hunter hospital and that profits don't come before services that the community need."

According to Mr. Hayes, this decision has not been made in the interest of the wider community.

"This is an attack on regional NSW," he said. "The private sector is about making money.

"We cannot get to a point that if you're wealthy, you can access services and if you don't then you either have to go on a waiting list or maybe go to Newcastle."

He says a hospital is not for the government to profit from and asks for a change in direction.

"The fact of the matter is what goes on in the hospital is the responsibility of Health," he said.

"It is not the responsibility or to be abdicated to the private sector."

The rally will continue to be advertised over the next couple of days and Gerard Hayes encourages people to come along.