Workload crisis at Northern Beaches hospital

Overstretched nurses, junior staff and dangerous staff-to-patient ratios - these are just some of the serious concerns of nurses and midwives from Northern Beaches Hospital which has led them to industrial action against employer Healthscope.

While state-wide industrial action takes places by the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) to increase the public award rate for employees by 15%, Northern Beaches Hospital is classified as a private hospital providing public services and will not be covered by any Government agreement.

NSWNMA Northern Beaches Branch President Sheridan Brady said local nurses and midwives want to achieve parity with their public service counterparts for both pay and entitlements such as maternity leave and annual leave. However, they’re most important fight is to have staff-to-patient ratios mandated.

“Ratios save lives,” Sheridan told Keeping News Local.

“We are pushing for ratios, which was something that was promised to be mandated by the current government to public hospitals.”

The private sector is not obliged to provide any mandated staff-to-patient ratios, and as Northern Beaches Hospital is operated by overseas-owned Healthscope, the local hospital has seen nights where one single nurse is taking care of up to 20 patients.

“We are haemorrhaging nurses to the public sector. It’s not a very attractive position to be working in, so we have trouble recruiting and retaining staff,” Sheridan said.

While public hospitals’ “resus" departments - where the most critical patients are kept - have one nurse focusing on one patient, Northern Beaches Hospital’s “resus" department ratio is one nurse to two patients. Elsewhere in the hospital, in acute areas, one nurse is expected to look after three patients at a time, and up in the regular wards there is one nurse for every four patients.

“Having mandated ratios in place stops all sorts of issues and that’s been recognised in other states. NSW is really behind when it comes to things like that. Additionally, we are living in the city with the highest cost of living and we are the lowest paid (nurses) in the country,” said Sheridan.

“It’s particularly difficult for our junior staff. It’s too much for them to deal with in their first few years of training,” said Sheridan.

While NSW public nurses and midwives went back out to strike on 13 November, and have received a 3% interim pay rise from the Government, Northern Beaches Hospital staff still have to go through an enterprise bargaining agreement with Healthscope to achieve any change.

“We have had incredible support from our local members”, said Sheridan. “There has been a mountain of support at the Northern Beaches, particularly on the back of teachers and police getting pyrites - and they absolutely deserve the payrise. But at some point we have been forgotten about which is pretty sad.”