Private hospital nurses stood down despite crisis

NURSES at four Queensland private hospitals have been stood down in the midst of the worst health crisis facing Australia in a century.

The nurses are casualties of the decision by State and Federal governments to ban nonurgent elective surgery to make room for COVID-19 patients in hospitals and preserve face masks for health workers treating patients with the virus.

It comes at the same time as governments are bringing nurses out of retirement and fast tracking the qualifications of student nurses to cope with COVID-19 patients swamping the hospital system.

Nurses employed by Healthe Care, the third largest private hospital operator in the state, behind Ramsay Health Care and Healthscope, were notified by letter that they would not have work for the next four weeks.

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In the letter to staff, Healthe Care CEO Julia Bellamy said: “Due to the escalating COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our business, we find ourselves having to make some very difficult decisions which are completely outside our control. We have made the difficult decision to stand down a considerable portion of our workforce for a four-week period during which time we will review the situation.”

Anne Mohle, from the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union, said four Healthe Care hospitals in southeast Queensland would be standing down nurses.

“We are outraged this could happen,” she said.