Final Push to Save Maitland Hospital

BY SARAH BARONOWSKI

In one final push to save the new Maitland Hospital from privatisation, Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison is rallying together with her community at the weekend.

She's encouraging everyone to turn up at 12:30pm in Maitland Park on Sunday, demanding the Government walk away from a public-private provider (PPP) model once and for all. She recently presented a petition to Parliament with more than 20, 000 signatures asking for just this.

Jenny Aitchison says the community's efforts to turn things around have been successful in the past and there's no reason they won't be able to convince the Health Minister to keep their hospital public.

"We've won on the increased funding, we've won on the escalated time frame for delivery, we've won in getting corporate for-profit PPP partnership. We just need the community to really come together for one big final push to reject the not-for-profit public-private partnership.

"We want a fully public hospital."

Community Protests over Maitland Hospital. Image: Maitland Mercury

However, Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald has fired back at Ms. Aitchison, saying that Labor has failed to get behind the project and they're not committed to the delivery of a new hospital.

"Unfortunately, we've got Labor undermining the prospects for a new hospital and any new hospital that we get underway could have the rug pulled out from underneath it. This is bad, bad news for the people of the Lower Hunter and I am calling on the Member for Maitland to get behind our $450 million commitment."

He says despite concerns about the availability of medical services under a not-for-profit provider, this model won't change a thing.

"The signage is up there on the new hospital site that guarantees full public access just as people are used to today so there's [sic] no changes to the levels of service and their accessibility. All the normal things that they would expect from a public hospital will be there. It will just be built and operated by a not-for-profit provider."

But according to Jenny Aitchison, this is not only inaccurate it's simply incorrect. She claims there will be a difference in services under a public-private model and public patients will be the first to suffer if the hospital is at capacity. 

"Public patients will be the first to be moved when there are vacancies available. Now, do we want people being moved in hospital because of their treatment needs or because of their capacity to pay?" she said. 

"We've already got a private hospital in Maitland. We do not need another private hospital."

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

Mining workers rally against Glencore, no result yet

BY LAUREN FREEMANTLE

Efforts to strike an agreement between mining company Glencore and its dissatisfied employees have so far failed, with tensions coming to a head yesterday at Singleton Showground.

Glencore employees, members of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), gathered at the Showground on Tuesday to rally for new enterprise agreements after the expiration of previous agreements.

Around 1300 union members were present and calling for greater job security, higher redundancy pay and a lessening of the use of contractors within the company.

With three work stoppages at the mining giant's Hunter Valley open cut sites, Northern District President of the CFMEU, Peter Jordan, believes the 12-week disagreement has been detrimental to Glencore's productivity.

"I think it's had a major effect on their production, that's our understanding of it," he said, "They're having problems with their shipments and we're told by other coal proprietors [Glencore] are busily in contact with them for the purposes of purchasing coal to meet their shipments.

"They may have their standard line that they say to the media," Mr Jordan continued, "that the industrial action has had minimal impact on them and they're continuing to operate safely, but the fact of the matter is that's not what's reality on the job."

Mr Jordan said the union passed three resolutions yesterday in a unanimous vote. "Firstly, that the district will continue to be directed by its 1400 members to call further aggregate meetings in the event that we're not able to progress the negotiations.

"Secondly, the individual mine sites in the meantime would continue to implement stoppages and other industrial action to bring about a successful agreement.

"And thirdly, the 1300 members in attendance made it very clear they wanted to call on Glencore to come to the table and deliver on the key issues at hand."

Glencore's Ravensworth, Glendell, Mangoola, Bulga and Liddell mines are among those whose workers are being represented by the union.

Tuesday's rally at Singleton Showground. Image Source: Singleton Argus. 

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.