4 February 2022
February 4, 2022: BREAKING NEWS: In a win for the ANMF (SA Branch), CALHN has agreed to staff according to the Enterprise Agreement whilst consultations resume in good faith. We continue to consult over how we can deal with situations where staff may not be available to meet the demand, and are meeting with the Department for Health and Wellbeing and CALHN this morning (4 Feb) to explore arrangements to deal with situations when there is insufficient staff available to meet requirements. We will update members as soon as we can.
January 31: At a time when the Premier has said on a number of occasions that the hospital and health system in SA was coping well under the ravages of the COVID pandemic, the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN), which oversees the Royal Adelaide Hospital and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, amongst its hospitals and services, is proposing to slash the number of nursing staff rostered to provide care.
In proposals given to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (SA Branch) on 27 January, CALHN have proposed to reduce rostered numbers of staff across almost every ward and unit.
Non-COVID wards would lose effectively three registered nurse shifts each day (amounting to 24 hours of care lost to patients).
COVID wards would also lose three shifts a day, but in addition would also see some of the work undertaken by unpaid nursing students, some of whom would have little or no clinical experience.
COVID high-acuity wards caring for people seriously ill with the disease would see unpaid students and administrative staff providing nursing care to make up for the shortfall in available nursing staff.
ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM slammed the proposals, saying: “Only 10 months ago we were publicly warning CALHN and the Government that cutting the nursing workforce through the continuing use of voluntary separation packages would leave us vulnerable.
“They ignored us then and here we now see between 70 and 100 shifts per day proposed to be slashed from the rosters.
“The Premier and the Health Department are saying that they have capacity available in other sites, having announced the Plan 500 which had 100 COVID beds at the Lyell McEwin Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre. Only about 30-40% of those beds are being utilised for COVID patients according to briefings provided to us on the same date as CALHN released these proposals,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“If CALHN do not have the staff to provide safe levels of care and meet their minimum staffing requirements, why are patients not being transferred to other hospitals who can?’’
CALHN have also stooped to a new low in proposing the reintroduction of indentured slavery with nursing students in our universities required to make up the shortfalls in the rosters and not being paid when they do so.
“We agree that nursing students should be able to be part of the COVID response workforce - but they should be paid as Assistants in Nursing for any such work that they do,’’ Ms Dabars said.
In addition to all of these cuts and changes, CALHN have also sought to spread the nurses in charge of each ward area more thinly. Rather than be in charge of one patient care area, the Nursing Unit Managers (NUMs) will now be required to oversee two patient care areas that are some distance away from each other.
“At a time when they are proposing to have fewer staff, more junior staff and in the face of the demands of COVID we cannot fathom why CALHN are seeking to double the number of areas that nurses manage,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“Finally, when the Premier is foreshadowing an end to the Omicron outbreak and a return to ‘COVID normal’ in the next few week, why on earth would CALHN be proposing indefinite cuts to staffing levels and new work arrangements that won’t even be in place to respond to the current surge?’’
The ANMF (SA Branch) is seeking member feedback to the CALHN proposals but is already receiving strong and consistent rejection of them.
The ANMF (SA Branch) is calling on the Premier and Health Minister to step in and stop these proposed cuts immediately.
There has been communication distributed to members stating that the surge plan is supported by the ANMF. This is false and we are in dispute with CALHN over this plan. Please read our statement on the issue
here .