Western Sydney Nurse Numbers Drop To Unsafe Levels
Type: Media Releases Subject: Public Hospitals
17 March 2010
Nurses across the Sydney West Area Health Service (SWAHS) will hold midday rallies at seven hospitals tomorrow, Thursday 18 March, to highlight the fact that nurse numbers at SWAHS hospitals and community health services have dropped to unsafe levels.
Rallies details
Date: Thursday, 18 March 2010
Time: 12.00noon
Venues
Lithgow – near the Post Office in Cook St Plaza
Katoomba – outside hospital on Great Western Highway
Penrith – outside Nepean Hospital, Great Western Highway
Mount Druitt – Zoe Place, Mount Druitt
Blacktown – outside Blacktown Hospital, Blacktown Road
Westmead – cnr Darcey and Hawkesbury Rds
Auburn – cnr Norval St and Hargrave Rd
Concerned members of the community are invited to join the rally in their area.Off duty nurses from Portland, Springwood and Cumberland hospitals and all Sydney West community health services will join the rallies in their area.
NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA) general secretary, Brett Holmes, will attend and address the Nepean Hospital rally at Penrith. Mr Holmes said Sydney West AHS nurses have had it and their frustration with the lack of nurse recruitment and cuts to beds and services has boiled over. “The SWAHS really needs an urgent cash injection and it needs to start advertising for nurses immediately,” Mr Holmes said.
Background examples of shortages
1. Lithgow and Katoomba: The emergency department (ED) is short staffed and up to half of the hospital’s ward beds are closed due to a failure to recruit nurses to fill vacancies. The SWAHS is also failing to recruit to nurse vacancies at Katoomba Hospital.
2. Nepean Hospital: There are more than 20 full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions unfilled in the maternity section alone. This includes vacancies in the clinic, delivery suite, ante-natal and post-natal sections. For the month 8/3/10 - 4/4/10 the roster has 421 unfilled shifts as follows:
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit - short 166 shifts
Antenatal - short 51 shifts
Postnatal - short 121 shifts
Delivery Suite - short 83 shifts
There are also 14.5 vacancies in the Emergency Department and despite this shortage the Emergency Department nurses were being called on to cover shortages on other wards. Most other units also have significant vacancies, yet no recruitment advertising is being done outside the WSAHS.
3. Mount Druitt-Blacktown: The emergency departments at these two hospitals are down a total of 13 FTE nurses, including their vital clinical-leadership positions of Clinical Nurse Consultant and Clinical Nurse Educator.
4. Other hospitals: The story is the same at all other hospitals including Westmead and Auburn.
5. Mental health: Ten mental health beds have been closed across the SWAHS. This is ridiculous as every one knows there is a national shortage of mental health beds. We need to open more beds, not close them. As a result, community mental health services across the AHS are stretched to breaking point; a situation made worse by the fact some staffing levels are down by as much as 50% in some community mental health teams. This is also putting additional pressure on emergency departments as mental health patients are forced to rely on these facilities.
6. Community nursing: Community nursing positions are also disappearing across the SWAHS and caseloads are almost impossible to manage. Most case workers now have between 40 and 60 patients on their books, but can only devote about eight days a month to them because of the extra time they must spend on crisis work.
7. Cleaners: To make things even worse a significant shortage of cleaners is emerging across the SWAHS, which means hospital cleaning is being prioritised and a lot of areas, including staff toilets, are not getting done or done on time.
For further media enquires please contact John Moran on the details below.
Contact details
John MoranMedia Liasion Officer
Ph: 0410 603 278
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