A NSWNMA rally outside Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital got “fantastic support” with more than 100 nurses and other staff attending in their own time, said branch secretary Camilla Smith.

She welcomed the attendance of local Labor MP Sonia Hornery and Greens MP (and former GP) Dr Amanda Cohn. 

“We’re here today rallying because we’re sick of our hospital leaking. We want to have our hospital fixed. We want our staff to feel safe and our patients to feel safe,” Camilla said. 

“We also want clear communication and consultation with our members and all of our staff and workers, to know that these problems are going to be fixed and the timeframe that they’re going to be fixed in.” 

She said the branch would continue to advocate for patients and staff  “to ensure this situation never happens again and PPPs in public health are removed.” 

Speaking later to The Newcastle Weekly, Camilla said the issues were the result of systemic failures rather than isolated incidents. 

They followed years of maintenance problems being passed between parties involved in the hospital’s public private partnership arrangement. 

“This has been going on for a very long time and in the past 12 months it has become particularly problematic,” she said. 

“Patients and staff are now being severely impacted by those failures.” 

She said it took a formal Section 81 workplace safety process to bring all parties to the table, describing communication as slow and difficult. 

“We should not have to go through SafeWork just to get basic answers,” she added. 

“Nurses should be able to come to work, do their job and go home safely.”