January 17, 2021
  • Homepage
  • Professional Issues
  • Research
  • Education
  • Career
  • Registration
  • Students
  • Public Health
  • Home
    • Latest News
    • Featured News
    • Editorial
    • Lamp Archive
    • Lamp 2020
  • Professional Issues
    • Research
    • Education
    • Career
    • Registration
    • Students
    • Public Health
  • Specialities
    • Mental Health
    • Aged Care
    • Midwifery
    • Emergency
    • Drug and Alcohol
    • General
  • Workplace Issues
    • Ask Judith
    • Workplace News
    • Unions
  • Social Justice & Action
    • Climate Change and Environment
    • Community Campaigns
    • Member Stories
  • Life
    • Work
    • Offers
    • Travel
  • Conferences, Scholarships & Research
    • Jobs

Top Advertisment

Public Health

Professional Issues / Public Health

Regional nurses have their say

Lamp Editorial Team
|
December 2, 2020

Nurses in country NSW will tell city-based decision makers how their local health services can be improved.

The NSWNMA will help members in rural and regional NSW tell a parliamentary inquiry about their local health services.

The inquiry will investigate the condition of rural and regional healthcare, including barriers to services, staffing challenges, capital expenditure, planning systems and the gap in health outcomes depending on postcode across NSW.

The NSWNMA will make a submission to the inquiry and has asked members to provide their experiences and views.

“Tell us about the challenges you and your colleagues face. Your stories will help inform our submission,” said a union flyer distributed to members.

“Are there enough staff? Do you have access to quality health services? What are the wait times like? Do services accommodate for indigenous or culturally and linguistically diverse communities? Is enough money being spent improving access to health services?”

Problems facing non-metropolitan nurses can include shortages of both GPs and nursing staff, replacement of local GPs with remote video calls, no security services and police off duty late at night.

NSWNMA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, urged the Berejiklian government to fast-track the allocation of extra nurses and midwives across the state.

“The government must prioritise the roll-out of additional nurses and midwives it promised, instead of waiting until weeks out from the next state election in 2023,” he said.

“Our regional communities have faced ongoing battles with drought, severe water shortages, catastrophic bushfires and now further economic downturn thanks to COVID-19. They deserve access to the best health care possible, regardless of where they choose to live

“For years, we’ve been calling for increased nurse-to-patient ratios across all public hospitals in NSW to improve safety and promote better patient outcomes, but the government continues to refuse to commit to mandatory minimum staffing.”

Across NSW, thriving hospitals that were the largest employers in rural towns have lost vital services such as maternity and operating theatres.

While obesity, Type 2 diabetes and suicide are on the increase, diabetes services no longer exist at many sites, and community and mental health services have been scaled back.

Labor’s Shadow Minister for Health, Ryan Park, told Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes he wants all sides of politics to join forces to fix rural healthcare.

“We’ve got a system that is really, really sick when it’s beyond the major cities,” Park said.

“This is Australia in 2020; we should pride ourselves on having universal access to healthcare. At the moment, a postcode is determining the level of access to healthcare you get and that’s simply not right.”

Related Posts

Traditional medicines must be integrated into health care for culturally diverse groups

1 year ago

Commonsense prevails for Wyong PUBLIC Hospital

3 years ago

Free flu vaccines available for the most vulnerable

1 year ago

Middle Advertisment

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Reader Interactions

Cancel reply

Advertisement Area Single Article

COVID-19 Information

  • Public health employees
  • Private health employees
  • Aged Care information
  • Student information
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
  • Support available due to COVID-19

Trending

  • A new permanent visa pathway for nurses under Work
  • Championing education for COVID-19 under Aged Care
  • ‘Like a piranha’: how midwives’ descriptions of breastfeeding affect women’s attitudes under Midwifery
  • Aged Care information on COVID-19 under Aged Care, COVID-19
  • Pandemic fight needs more staff under Aged Care

Footer Content 01





Footer Content 02

The Lamp is the magazine of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. It is published bi-monthly and mailed to every member of the Association.

Footer Menu 01

About

NSWNMA
Careers
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy

Footer Menu 02

Contact

Contact Us

Footer Menu 03

Advertising

Advertising

Copyright © 2021 NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. Authorised by B.Holmes, General Secretary, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, 50 O’Dea Avenue Waterloo NSW 2017 Australia.
Design and Development by Slant Agency