15 November 2021
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (SA Branch) has taken aim at new propaganda advertisements commenced by the Marshall Liberal Government. The union says that far from being a world class system the health system is at breaking point.
Premier Stephen Marshall has once again chosen to leave SA nurses, midwives and personal care workers struggling to keep a failing hospital system afloat and instead use hard earned taxpayers’ funds to launch an advertising campaign designed to prop up the health of his government rather than the health of south Australians.
“It’s outrageous that the Marshall Government would choose to spend taxpayers’ money on an advertising campaign saying his Government has improved SA’s health system when it’s simply become worse,” said ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adjunct Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM.
“This money needs to go to into employing enough nurses and midwives and other health professionals, fixing our hospitals, and ensuring our healthcare workers are safe at work.
“Staff shortages are leading to overstressed nurses who are working overtime and double shifts. Our emergency departments are routinely running overcapacity.
“This year alone, the numbers of South Australian patients needing a ward bed after visiting emergency departments has nearly doubled, and often they are waiting for more than 24 hours. A third of these patients were stuck in Emergency departments needing support for mental health issues,” says Ms Dabars.
“We are regularly seeing 100 or more people waiting for hospital beds each day across the metropolitan area. We are seeing dozens of elective surgeries cancelled every week as a result of hospital bed pressures and staff shortages. Ambulance ramping has become an everyday, every shift event across Adelaide.”
““Country hospitals with emergency departments without doctors or senior nurses on weekends and out of hours. Midwifery services closed in regional areas because of failures to recruit and retain midwives.”
“This is not the work of a Government improving health and care in South Australia – this is the result of what happens when a Government is more focussed on spending your money on cheap slogans and marketing campaigns than fixing our health system.
The ANMF (SA Branch) released their Health Policy Position Statement to all political parties ahead of next year’s state election seeking a commitment to address issues with South Australia’s health system. Both the Premier and Opposition Leader, along with the Leaders of the Greens and SA Best, were invited to attend our Annual Delegates Conference in October, to tell the delegates their party’s position on health. The Premier was the only party leader that declined to participate despite several invitations being issued to him. Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas told the delegates if he was elected Premier in 2022 he would commit to nurse-patient ratios and implement a 90% hospital capacity - both commitments will help stop the squeeze on our health system immensely.
“It’s incredibly offensive to see the Marshall Government take credit for fixing a system that is clearly broken and even more offensive to know he is spending your money in doing so.
“Make no mistake about it – South Australia’s health system is in crisis, and we need urgent action now,” said Ms Dabars.
The ANMF (SA Branch) will continue to lobby the Marshall Government to provide increased resources to community and primary health care initiatives to manage people’s health care needs at home and in the community, especially in areas of mental health care and in regional areas.
“We will continue to take every opportunity to seek similar commitments to that of Opposition’s from the current Marshall Liberal Government,” said Ms Dabars.