130 Nursing Positions Slashed Across The Greater West

Type: Union News Subject: General
14 January 2009

Nurses to meet in Dubbo and Bathurst this week - further meetings in the weeks ahead.

Nearly 130 nursing positions, in hospitals and health facilities across the Greater Western Area Health Service (GWAHS), will be lost in the next three months if plans to find more than $60 million in savings go ahead across the AHS.

The GWAHS wants to slash its nursing positions from the current 1153 full-time-equivalents (FTEs) to 1024 - a loss of 129 positions or more than ten per cent of the current FTE positions.

This includes a loss of 27 positions at Dubbo Base Hospital, 34 positions at Bathurst and 37 positions at Orange.

NSW Nurses' Association (NSWNA) members at the Dubbo and Bathurst Hospitals will meet this week to discuss the plan and meetings will be held at other facilities across the GWAHS over the next two to three weeks.

Dubbo nurses meeting details
Date: 14 January 2009
Time: 2.00pm
Venue: Staff cafeteria, Dubbo Hospital

Bathurst nurses meeting details
Date: 15 January 2009
Time: 12.00noon
Venue: Daffodil Cottage, Bathurst Hospital

NSWNA Acting Assistant Secretary, Susan Pearce, said the nurses are very unhappy about these plans, which we believe are actually a breach of the workloads provisions of the nurses' award.

"At NSWNA branch meetings across the GWAHS the nurses will discuss the proposal and determine their response to these very deep staff cuts.

"In fact, the cuts are so deep they make a mockery of State Government claims that budget savings will not hit frontline services.

"For example, the Dubbo operating theatres are losing more than seven registered nurse positions and the intensive care unit more than two. At Bathurst the maternity unit is losing four midwife positions, the emergency department is losing three registered nurses and the medical wards nearly 10 positions.

"The NSWNA will fight the State Government very hard to prevent these job and service losses from going ahead.

"And the former Federal Government also shares a big part of the blame for the situation we now find ourselves in. For ten years the Howard Government kept reducing federal funding for public hospitals from 50 per cent to 45 per cent, leaving the States to carrying more of the burden.

"Yesterday we wrote to the new Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, describing the problem and asking for urgent restoration of federal hospital funding to take the pressure of State budgets," Ms Pearce said.

Contact details

NSW Nurses' Association
Ph: 02 8595 1234
Fax: 02 9550 3667
gensec@nswnurses.asn.au

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