PEDESTRIANS applauded and car horns tooted in support as more than 100 local nurses marched down Auburn Street on Wednesday morning, demanding fairer staffing ratios in the city’s two public hospitals.
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The protest was part of a statewide industrial action, drawing attention to the inequity operational conditions between large metropolitan hospitals and their smaller regional counterparts.
The group held a spirited stop-work meeting at the Workers Club where they unanimously resolved to escalate their campaign to convince the state government to guarantee the same minimum nursing levels would be applied in every hospital across NSW.
“Our campaign will continue with activities including: continued pressure on our MPs; building local community, professional and public sector advocacy coalitions; bed closures and service restrictions where needed to ensure safe patient care; and standing together to uphold the correct implementation and maintenance of ratios in wards/units where they currently exist,” a NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) organiser read.
“The NSW Government can prove its support for patients by giving NSWNMA an acceptable offer to improve and extend the award-based nursing hours/ratios system.
“Anything less is a sign that the Government is out of touch with the people of NSW who rely on a safe level of care in their Public Health System.
“We commit to continuing to advocate for our profession and our patients through our community and workplace campaign.
“We will do this until we have extended the system to more nursing specialties like paediatrics, emergency departments, community, critical care and additional areas of mental health care.
“We will do this until we have improved the ratios system to fix problems with patient specials and the ‘midnight census’ calculation.
“We will do this until we have extended the ratios system so that patients have the same level of nursing care no matter what their hospital size or postcode!” The resolution was met with a near deafening applause, chanting and whistleblowing.
After the meeting Goulburn Branch secretary Jane Cotter warned the Nurses Union was a force to be reckoned with and that if the Premier thought they would just go away, he had another thing coming.
“I don’t think the government has really thought about what we can do,” she said.
“We are quite a large union and we have a lot of community support… I think the turn out today should show the community how dedicated its nurses are to the hospital and safe patient care.
“We’re here for Goulburn.
We don’t want Goulburn to have less than the cities.
That’s what we’re here for… “(At the moment,) if the patients are very, very sick we can ask management to staff up and we do because we do need to do that but what we want is a basic mandated rate… We want a basic ratio at all times not just when the acuity is high.”
Ms Cotter was heartened by the amount of encouragement they got on their march.
She also appreciated the ear of Member for Goulburn Pru Goward but made no secret that she wanted her state MP to do more.
“It would be great to see our local member attend one of our rallies,” the union rep said.
“She is always prepared to meet with the officials from the local branch and she says she supports nurses but we would like to see her do more… “Pru tells us she has spoken to the minister. We’ve also had quite a few meetings with Pru… (but) we would like her to actually take our concerns to cabinet. She has shown support so far but we would definitely like to see her do more.”
The NSWNMA will hold a state-wide day of action on September 17, which it hopes will “have the impact of the Sydney New Year fireworks”.
They are also trying to collect a 100,000 signature petition for presentation to the government on the day.
"Think about the future" - Pilbrow
While nursing ratios are not a federal issue, Labor candidate for Hume Michael Pilbrow attended Wednesday morning’s stop work meeting to show his moral support for the campaign.
“I’m here to support the nurses because of the unfair ratios which have been imposed on them, where country nurses are having a higher ratio imposed than city nurses and I think that is just wrong,” he told the Post.
“It’s an issue of solidarity for me. Nurses are such an important part of our community.
Without nurses we wouldn’t be looked after when we’re sick.”
Mr Pilbrow was also concerned about what impact the issue could have on recruiting in the coming years and the potential for a staffing shortage when the Baby Boomers Generation started to retire.
“The message I’ve had from speaking to some of the nurses here today is that with fair conditions and fair pay and enough nurses there would be greater incentive for people to join the profession. If nurses start getting treated badly, that’s not going to encourage people to join,” he said.
“So, I think that is an important issue. It’s not just about the here and now but also the future workforce in the nursing sector and that’s something all people in Goulburn and Hume should be concerned about.”
