Far South Coast nurses say the rollout of safe staffing levels at South East Regional Hospital in Bega does not go far enough.
The Nurses and Midwives Association is upset the 14 additional staff will only be enough to cover shortfalls in the hospital’s emergency department.
The nurses union has questioned why the same isn’t being delivered to all the wards at the hospital and at all in Moruya where its members are stretched to the limit?
“Moruya doesn’t get anything until the new hospital is built. The wards do not get anything, maternity doesn’t get anything or community health,” South East Regional Branch President Diane Lang said.
“We really need another staff member in each ward. We need to have one person who is in charge floating and six nurses on the ward,” she said.
“We currently have one to four but that means one of the nurses has to step down from taking a patient load to manage the ward, which means we all have five or six patients to look after depending on what the patient numbers are so we do need more nurses on the floor in each ward,” she said.
The union has also questioned if the Southern NSW Local Health District will even be able to find 14 nurses.
“Recruiting and keeping nurses is a real big challenge here in Bega,” she said.
“We’re continuously turning around staff and having to orientate new staff and recruit new staff. It’s a vicious circle.”
Nurses at South East Regional Hospital has called on local State MP and long time doctor Michael Holland to start advocating for them instead of burying his head in the sand.
“I think Dr Holland likes and respects nurses because he’s works with them forever but he’s in the inner circle of the Ministry of Health now,” Ms Lang said.
“He’s a Member for Parliament and he’s towing the party line. He’s not standing up for what constituents in his area are talking about. We’re saying we need an equitable and fair pay rise and tell your boss what we want but no he doesn’t. He just follows the party line.”
