3 June 2020
The nurses’ union has furiously hit out at reports the Central Adelaide Local Health Network is proposing to boost bureaucratic support to its Chief Executive Officer Lesley Dwyer while at the same time proposing to slash the number of nurses and other direct health care staff.
Yesterday, the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Stephen Wade, confirmed that the State Government had resumed its plans for job cuts in health services put on hold earlier this year by the Premier because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CALHN has sought discussions with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (SA Branch) over more than 70 applications from nurses for voluntary separation packages which must be locked in by June 30 this year.
ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj. Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM said: “The union has no opposition to nurses accessing payments that will allow them to move into retirement. Our problem is that the system put in place by the Government means that their positions cannot be filled afterwards.
“This means that every nurse in a clinical role who leaves CALHN leaves behind a gap in staffing that will impact on the availability of services to the community.
“Now we have found out that whilst proposing to cut the jobs of health care workers the CEO is proposing to employ another 12 people within her own team.
“What kind of crazy world are we living in when, in the middle of dealing with a pandemic, our health system leaders prioritise providing more support to highly paid health system executives over direct patient care?,’’ Ms Dabars said.
The new roles are:
| New Positions |
Function |
| Legal Counsel (ASO8) |
Responsible to provide advice on legal matters, advice on IR/HR and contract matters. |
Principal Executive Officer (ASO5)
|
Dedicated executive support to the CEO. |
Project Officer (BGRU) (ASO6)
|
Assist with secretarial support to the
board and ministerial and government relations functions. |
Executive Officers (ASO4) (x8)
|
Executive support to the assigned
executive directors. The positions will be filled using a merit-based
selection process. |
Project Support Officer (ASO3)
|
Executive and project support to the
executive director capital projects and planning and executive director
digital design. |