Industrial action throws spotlight on understaffing of public healthcare services under private ownership.

All patients in New South Wales  deserve the regardless of who owns the treating hospital.

During November NSWNM A members staged strikes at several of Healthscope’s hospitals, including Northern Beaches, Norwest Private, Nepean Private and Campbelltown Private, Sydney Southwest Private, Hunter Valley Private Hospital and Newcastle Private Hospital.

ICU nurse Sheridan Brady, president of the NSWNMA branch at Northern Beaches, said the rally was a “brilliant response” to the union’s call for strike action in support of a new enterprise agreement.

“All patients, public or private, whether they can afford private health insurance or not, and regardless of who owns the treating hospital, deserve the same standard of care,” Sheridan said.

Northern Beaches is the only privately owned hospital in NSW that offers public health services.

This came about through a privatisation scheme implemented by the former NSW Coalition government to replace Manly and Mona Vale public hospitals with the new Healthscope facility.

Public hospital nurse-to-patient ratios do not apply to Northern Beaches nurses even though they treat public patients.

“Our patients deserve the same level of nursing care that they would receive from the other two major hospitals in our LHD – Royal North Shore and Hornsby,” Sheridan said.

“However, we are excluded from the safe staffing ratios being rolled out in the public health system.

“We get less take-home pay with no access to salary packaging and our annual leave is in dispute before the Fair Work Commission.”

DISPUTE OVER ANNUAL LEAVE

She said the annual leave dispute “has come down to the interpretation of a single clause in our EBA”.

“Healthscope is trying to restrict access to additional annual leave for 7 day shift workers.

“Also, we are entitled to less maternity leave (10 weeks) than the public sector (up to 16 weeks).

“We have no separate entitlement to family and carer leave; this instead comes out of our sick leave balance.

“It is not hard to see why we are losing staff to the public sector, including Royal North Shore which is 20 minutes away.

“Healthscope is a for-profit organisation. As nurses and midwives, we struggle to justify that good patient care should be balanced against profit for shareholders.

“We have a big public emergency department where members have openly  disclosed  that it is not

uncommon for a single RN to be responsible for caring for 20 to 30 patients and beyond.

“This is simply not safe and is unsustainable.”

Sheridan said, “unmanageable workloads, unsafe ratios and a junior-heavy skill mix on wards are commonplace and are taking a toll.”

“ACORN and ACCCN standards should  not  be  guidelines  or a  suggestion.  They  should be mandatory.”

She pointed out that government departments issue licences to private hospitals “with no mandated rules around how to staff these facilities”.

POLITICAL SUPPORT

Sheridan said local state and federal politicians attended the NSWNMA rally and “they are in strong support of us as a profession and for the members of our community that we provide care for.”

She said support for industrial action was growing among younger nurses.

“I thought younger members may be a little more timid but they’ve got a fair bit of fire in their bellies.

“Junior nurses and midwives have become increasingly aware that their conditions are vastly below that of their peers in the public health sector. They know they deserve better.

“As an RN with 30 years of experience, I frequently hear of nurses and midwives of my vintage leaving Northern Beaches Hospital, the state or the entire profession.

“We need to have some means to retain all that experience, to entice us old girls to stay and pass that knowledge onto the next generation of nurses and midwives.

“It has become a very hard sell when you don’t have to look far to find a better deal.

“We are not bargaining for an agreement better than the public sector. We just want parity.”