October 8, 2024

queensland nurses and midwives union

Message of support and solidarity to the nurses and midwives of New South Wales

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On behalf of the nurses and midwives of Queensland I send our solidarity and support to members of the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA).

Members of your sister union, the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union (QNMU), have been watching very closely in recent weeks the developments south of our border. The terrifying spread of the Delta Stain of COVID 19 has intensified before our eyes.  Over the past few weeks we have seen cases skyrocket to over 700 locally acquired COVID 19 cases, daily.

Our thoughts are with you at this most difficult time. We know that you are the critical frontline of the COVID 19 response, that you are working tirelessly across New South Wales to keep your community and the rest of Australia safe. You are working overtime and double shifts in our hospitals and community, caring for the infected, testing and tracing, immunizing and planning and coordinating the response. In doing so you are putting the safety and needs of others before your own. We recognize and so appreciate the sacrifices you are making. We are also responding in Queensland, but the challenges you are facing right now are so much greater than ours.

As we also know too well, the COVID 19 response is not all you are dealing with.  This new wave comes at a time when non-COVID related demand on our health system is also  significant, a demand crisis that you are highlighting through your current campaign for mandated legislated minimum staffing ratios across the state. You know our community, and nurses and ,  deserve the “care guarantee” that ratios provide and  you are resolute in your campaign.

The current Delta strain response demonstrates just how important it is that governments invest in having sufficient numbers of appropriately qualified nurses and midwives to keep out community safe. You, along with your other health colleagues, are so central to not only community safety right now but also the rebuilding of our economy and social cohesion.  The tremendous value of your work must be recognised.

This statement of support and solidarity seems so small given the pressure you are under right now. But we feel powerless to do anything else other than to say our thoughts are with you and that we see and are in awe of the effort you are making.

On behalf of the members of the QNMU thank you for all that you are doing to help keep all of Australia safe. Stay safe and strong. This dark time will pass and it will do so in no small part because of all you are doing now.

In solidarity

Beth Mohle

Secretary QNMU

“Your action  is inspirational and we stand in solidarity with you”: a letter of support from QNMU

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Beth Mohle, Secretary of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union, sends her support to NSW nurses and midwives fighting for patient safety.

Dear NSWNMA members,

We have been closely watching your current industrial action over safe workloads in the public sector and send you our support and solidarity from Queensland.

The recent  industrial action taken is very significant. It took great courage to take this action, but it is driven by passion and commitment and an over-riding concern for patient and staff safety.

As we know, nurses and midwives never take industrial action lightly. But so many are now tipped over the edge, exhausted from the unrelenting workload demands and fed up with being disrespected and taken for granted.

Your number one priority is the safety of both the people that you care for and your colleagues. Safe staffing through shift by shift ratios is what you are seeking, and your Queensland nursing and midwifery colleagues stand with you shoulder to shoulder in this quest. The need for ratios is obvious to us, and we are so frustrated that others cannot see what is so blindingly obvious.

Ratios not only save lives, they save money. And we have the evidence to prove this.

Five years ago, Queensland became the fourth jurisdiction in the world to legislate minimum nurse to patient ratios in public hospital prescribed medical and surgical units. Just last month, on International Nurses Day, an independent evaluation of this initiative by Professors Linda Aiken and Matthew McHugh from University of Pennsylvania and colleagues from Queensland University of Technology was published in the prestigious international medical journal The Lancet.

This evaluation found that the implementation of ratios in these sites had saved 145 lives and resulted in an estimated $70 million in savings through decreased adverse events and length of stay.  Importantly, it is estimated that this dollar saving represented more than double the “return on investment” of the cost of employing the additional nursing staff required to meet the minimum ratios.

Yet, evidence alone will not achieve change – action is required. And the courageous action you are taking is acknowledged and admired.

Nurses and midwives are tired of being seen as a cost on a balance sheet and instead need to be seen for what they are – an essential investment required  to achieve quality health outcomes and ensure patient safety.  We must shift the thinking from cost to value. We are worth it.

Your action  is inspirational and we stand in solidarity with you in your current struggle.  We continue our campaign to extend ratios to all settings. We all will not rest until we see a care guarantee delivered via ratios in all sectors and settings.

Together, we can and must do this.

Keep up the great fight!

 

In solidarity,

Beth Mohle

Secretary

Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union

On behalf of QNMU members and Council

Nursing homes told to open books

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Pressure is mounting on aged care providers to show how they spend taxpayer subsidies.

Federal MPs who want transparency in aged care funding are making a renewed attempt to force providers to reveal how they spend their huge government subsidies.

Centre Alliance party MP Rebekha Sharkie has introduced legislation known as the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Financial Transparency) Bill 2020.

It would require providers to disclose their income, their spending on food and medication, the amount spent on staff and staff training, accommodation, admin-istration, and how much they pay their parent bodies.

“This will enable families of loved ones, stakeholders and the public to have a clear view, for the first time, on the proportion of income that providers actually spend on costs of care and how much is just being pocketed or wasted,” Ms Sharkie said.

“Unlike hospitals and childcare centres, aged care facilities can employ as few staff as they like because there are no staff-to-resident ratios in nursing homes.

“We do not know how much they spend on staff, or what categories of staff they spend their money on.”

The bill mirrors legislation introduced by fellow Centre Alliance MP Stirling Griff last year.

The ALP, Greens and Centre Alliance supported this 2019 attempt to legislate for financial transparency and accountability but the Liberal and National parties, with the support of One Nation, voted to defeat it.

Senator Griff said the federal government and One Nation were heavily lobbied by some aged care providers to block that “game-changing” legislation.

“Sadly, it showed just how strong the ties that bind the aged care lobby and government really are. It was a deplorable act,” he said.

“The aged care industry has been successfully lobbying governments for years arguing against more transparency. The influence of the industry through government committees, think tanks and policies is well known and is being rightly questioned at the royal commission into aged care.”

Taxpayers’ money – without accountability

In 2018–19, governments spent over $20 billion on aged care, with about 66 per cent of this going to residential care.

Senator Griff says more funding is needed to fix aged care, but governments cannot simply pour money into the system without getting more accountability and transparency from providers.

“Currently, providers can spend their taxpayer subsidies pretty much as they choose,” he said.

“When it comes to food, a study of 800 nursing homes shows the average spend is just $6 a day.

“My office has heard firsthand accounts from people who work with and for aged care providers, highlighting that dodgy financial decisions and profiteering takes place.

“For instance, there is a hundred-bed provider that has made $2.5 million in profit three years running, but this profit is only shown as $500,000 on its financials, because they pay $2 million in rent to the parent company, which already owns the building.

“There is a 50-bed, not-for-profit facility where the salaries for three managers exceeded $500,000 at a time when the home could not meet basic minimum standards and was also sanctioned.

“Other providers have used subsidies to help send senior staff to overseas award ceremonies and lavish conferences.”

Nurse unions back transparency law

Legislation to make the aged care system more transparent is backed by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), a national body which represents state-based nursing unions including the NSWNMA.

ANMF Federal Secretary, Annie Butler, said that when deciding on a nursing home, residents and families have the right to know what the facility spends on basic care needs.

This includes items such as food, medicines, medical products, continence aids, management wages, staff wages, and staffing numbers and categories.

“Families and residents cannot make informed decisions without knowing the composition and qualifications of the workforce and the training provided to them,” she said.

“Providers are currently able to spend taxpayer subsidies as they choose and, as the royal commission has exposed, this is not delivering in some cases even basic standards of care.

“Large for-profit aged care providers in particular are, like many businesses, using complex corporate structures and tactics to maximise earnings and profits and avoid tax while taking advantage of generous government subsidies.”

Queensland opens the books

When Earle Haven Retirement Village on the Gold Coast suddenly closed over a contract dispute in July 2019, almost 70 residents were left abandoned by management.

This led the Queensland Labor Government to legislate for a new standard of transparency for private and public health and aged care facilities.

The new law gives Queenslanders information about the aged care facility they choose, the number of staff, qualifications of staff and skills mix.

Private aged care facilities can opt out of disclosing this crucial information, because they are regulated by the federal government, but the Queensland Government can publicly disclose that a facility has chosen not to provide this level of transparency.

Queenslanders vote to strengthen nurse-to-patient ratios 

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Voters have overwhelmingly voted to expand nurse-to-patient ratios in Queensland after providing the Palaszczuk Labor Government an increased majority in Saturday’s election. 

In an election dominated by health and COVID-19, Queenslanders had chosen to endorse the Premier’s health plan with a 5% statewide swing and a majority in the state’s unicameral parliament. 

Queensland Labor had pledged to hire 5,800 full-time equivalent (FTE) nurses and midwives across the state, as well as expanding their current nurse-to-patient ratios model to include trials in operating theatres and maternity wards.  

This was in contrast with the Liberal National Party’s commitment of an extra 2,530 nurses and midwives, of which not detail was provided around the staffing model. 

In 2019, the NSW Liberal-National Coalition Government committed to only 5,000 new nurses and midwives, without any indication of full time equivalency or staffing ratios. This despite NSW’s larger population and health needs, and its more substantial budget and turnover.  

The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union had been campaigning strongly for improved ratios across the state. It is now clear that their efforts to improve patient safety in the state have paid off.  

Nurse and Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union member Chris Johnson is currently still in the race as a Labor candidate for the formerly safe Liberal National seat of Coomera. 

The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association is also campaigning for expanded nurse-to-patient ratios. To support the campaign, sign their official NSW Parliament e-petition.  

Queensland ratios win improve outcomes for nurses and patients 

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Researchers have found sizeable improvements in patient safety and staff satisfaction arising from the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union’s nurse-to-patient ratios win in 2017. 

The research, published in the British Medical Journal, showed measurable qualitative improvements in both patient and staff outcomes. 

For example, researchers found a 12% drop in 30-day mortality rates per reduced patient per nurse where nurse-to-patient ratios were implemented. 

The research also found a 15% drop in emotional exhaustion and 14% drop in job dissatisfaction for each reduced patient per nurse. 

The implementation of nurse-to-patient ratios also resulted in more consistent staffing levels in the wards where the mandated ratios were present.  

The union has continued to campaign for the roll-out of nurse-to-patient ratios in more wards and clinical settings in the lead up to the Queensland State Election on 31 October 2020.  

The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association is also campaigning for nurse-to-patient ratios. Support their campaign by signing this NSW Parliament e-petition.   

145 lives saved in Queensland by Christmas – thanks to nurse-to-patient ratios

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A new study conducted by the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania has revealed Queensland’s nurse-to-patient ratios legislation has saved 145 lived and up to $81 million in taxpayer dollars.

The landmark study on Queensland’s Ratios scheme used advanced modelling to determine the improvements in patient outcomes that have resulted from the legislation. It found that, since the scheme was implemented in Queensland Health:

  • 145 deaths have been avoided
  • 255 readmissions have been avoided
  • 29,222 hospital days have been reduced
  • Between $54 and $81 million dollars saved from taxpayer coffers.

The study also found that the legislation reduced the average workload of medical and surgical nurses by between 1-3 nurses. The legislation has also ensured a more equitable workload between metropolitan, regional and rural nurses.

“The life-saving results of nurse-to-patient ratios have exceeded all expectations”, said Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union Secretary Beth Mohle.

“[Ratios are] a huge saving for Queensland taxpayers and Queensland Health. The cost of avoiding 145 deaths in Queensland is immeasurable”.

Ms Mohle indicated that her union and federal counterparts will continue to advocate for nurse-to-patient ratios, including in Aged Care, Emergency Departments and maternity services.

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