Fed-up nurses set to walk off the job
It’s not just because of Covid, the there shortages were prior to us opening year the borders last and Midwifery Australian Nursing executive Federation Tasmanian Brakey director Andrew
FED-UP nurses at the Royal Hobart Hospital will walk off the job next week after appeals to the government over chronic short staffing and working conditions yielded no result.
News of the industrial action came as Labor asked the government to reveal whether it had a plan to deal with the soaring number of Covid cases and deaths.
Nurses will take a halfhour to stop work next Wednesday to show their anger at the lack of solutions, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian executive director Andrew Brakey said.
“It’s not just because of Covid, the shortages were there prior to us opening the borders last year,” he said.
“Covid adds extra pressure
on top, because there’s a significant number of nurses with Covid at any one time now.
“But even if the rosters were full, from what we’re seeing, and hearing, it would still mean that there would be double shifts – and multiple shifts worked short – on any day.”
He said nurses were also seeking some form of recognition for their work during the pandemic, such as the one-off payments made to their colleagues interstate.
Tasmania recorded its worst single-day death toll from Covid-19 on Monday
Acting Premier Michael Ferguson confirmed the deaths of three men in their 70s and a woman in her 90s, taking the state’s death toll for the pandemic to 113.
The grim news came as the number of patients in hospital
with Covid approached 10 per cent of public hospital bed capacity.
There are currently 44 people in hospital being treated specifically for Covid among the 152 people in hospital with the disease.
Tasmania recorded 1411 new cases overnight and the total numbers of cases stands at 10,178.
More than 204,000 Tasmanians have had Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
A government spokesman said the Premier and Health Minister had recently met the union to discuss its concerns.
“An agreement has been reached with unions including the ANMF to pay health employees after 30 consecutive days of their health facility experiencing pandemic escalation level 3 or above,” he said.
“The Department of Health remains committed to resolving the workload concerns that have been raised by the ANMF.”
Labor leader Rebecca White said the health system was under considerable strain.
“Our health system is at breaking point. We are seeing sadly, more and more people contracting Covid hospitalised with Covid and tragically, more deaths. Our health workforce have been asking the Rockliff-Ferguson government for assistance for more than six months now and not getting anywhere. Strike action is the last resort.
“The question that we have is what is Premier Rockliff’s plan?
“What is his plan to deal with Covid, the growing number of hospitalisations, the tragic number of deaths?
“There’s no transparency
about the advice he’s relying upon to make decisions, whether it’s public health advice or other advice. He needs to be much clearer with the Tasmanian community because this is affecting not just the health system, it’s affecting our entire economy.”
She said Tasmania would be better served by a full-time health minister rather than Mr Rockliff trying to serve in that role and as Premier.
Mr Ferguson repeated the government’s recommendation that people take sensible precautions against becoming infected.
“Public Health officials have previously explained that fluctuations in daily case numbers are a part of living with Covid and it remains our collective responsibility to look out for one another by continuing to follow Covidsafe behaviours,” he said.