In the southern Sydney suburb of Kogarah, all units of St George Hospital were represented in the large crowd of nurses who rallied outside the hospital.
“If we are outside, it’s not OK inside” was the message on one of the rally’s many placards.
President of the hospital’s NSWNMA branch, Shane Slade, told the crowd: “This is what this union is all about. It’s about nurses and midwives coming together to support other nurses and midwives. We are not just supporting nurses and patients in the building behind us. We’re supporting nurses and patients across NSW. We’re here for everyone.”
Shane added: “I work in ICU and we are 30 FT staff down. That means patients can’t get booked in for their surgeries because there’s no staff for their beds.
“That means patients get pushed out before they’re ready to come to the wards. That means we can’t do our jobs properly.
“We go home every day feeling overworked and under-resourced.
“We want to go home feeling like we’ve done a good job. We want to go home feeling like we’ve done our best for patients, and right now, none of us are feeling like that.”
Branch Secretary, Samantha Strydom, told the rally that ED nurses are predominately junior staff who aren’t getting the support they deserve.
“We’ve lost so many senior staff and the juniors are teaching each other. We need more support; we need more education.
“We need more skilled staff; we need more senior staff. Ratios will fix that. Ratios mean better and safer working conditions, so we can actually give our patients the care they deserve.”
Other speakers outside St George Hospital included midwives from maternity and nurses from mental health units, along with NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Michael Whaites and Greens MP Cate Faehrmann.
Michael Whaites said nurses are sick and tired of Premier Perrottet not listening to what they, as qualified and experienced healthcare practitioners, have to say, and that listening is desperately needed in order to provide the healthcare system that this community needs.
“Wherever I go, nurses tell stories of where patient care is not at the level it should be. Where patients are falling unobserved because there are not enough nurses on the shift.
“When patients are waiting in ED for 10 or 11 hours. When aged care people who should be in a nursing home are still in hospital because of the lack of nurses in aged care.
“The system is sick and we are sick and tired of carrying the weight of it on our backs.
“Perrottet seems oblivious to the anger that he is fuelling.”