Nurses warned over industrial disruption, with hospital strike threat bound for tribunal
THE Government has threatened to launch legal action to stop the nursing union from “compromising patient safety” during planned industrial action in hospitals next week.
THE Government has threatened to launch legal action to stop the nursing union from “compromising patient safety” during planned industrial action in hospitals next week.
SA Health chief executive Dr Chris McGowan fears the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation action, which in-cludes cancelling elective surgery admissions, will have “significant clinical and safety impacts”.
“Accordingly I have instructed my staff to seek the assistance of the South Australian Employment Tribunal in preventing and/or minimising the impacts of any action that will compromise patient safety and the obligations we have towards those in our care,” a letter from Dr McGowan to the union says.
Health unions will on Friday meet with Health Minister Stephen Wade seeking a commitment of 50 extra beds across the system to ease pressure on metropolitan emergency departments.
If Mr Wade does not commit to extra beds by the end of Friday, unions will start rolling stop-work meetings and elective surgery admission cancellations from next week.
ANMF state secretary Elizabeth Dabars would not comment on whether the action would still go ahead but said the union was in a “more optimistic position” as a result of a number of Government commitments to ease pressure, which she said were attributable to the union campaign.
“I completely refute the suggestion that there are any clinical impacts that are any different to what the department imposes on the system when it’s at crisis point,” she said.
“What I can commit to is a measured approach to the meeting to see if we can reach a position where we can call off our public campaign.”
The escalation comes as a gastro outbreak at Flinders Medical Centre occurred just weeks after an internal memo told clinical staff to move potentially contagious patients into general wards to free up space in the overflowing emergency department.
The leaked FMC memo, distributed on September 18, instructs staff to move patients out of the ED even though it “may include working outside the normal infection control parameters”.
The memo also instructed staff to move potentially violent mental health patients into open wards with a guard.
The internal email was sent to a small group of staff and not circulated to other metropolitan hospitals.
The norovirus outbreak at FMC was confirmed yesterday by health authorities, with patients and staff affected. It started more than a week ago.
Southern Adelaide Local Health Network Chief Operating Officer, David Morris, confirmed the directive to move potentially contagious patients into general wards was sent to FMC staff.
“Norovirus is very common at this time of year and we are managing seven confirmed cases by implementing standard precautionary measures to reduce spread of the virus amongst patients and staff,” he said. “The system is managing a period of peak demand and as part of our demand strategies we transfer patients from the Emergency Department to more appropriate clinical spaces as quickly as possible.
“These clinical spaces are better equipped to manage a patient’s specific care needs rather than the Emergency Department.”
Prof Dabars said she was concerned about the gastro outbreak. “If the reports are true that nursing staff are being asked to bypass standard infection control parameters, this just lends further support to our call for an immediate solution to relieve the pressure in our hospitals,” she said.
“I look forward to meeting with the Minister this afternoon when I truly hope to receive news of the circuit-breaker our health system so clearly needs.”
Former head of department at Flinders Medical Centre Professor Warren Jones said it was concerning the outbreak coincided with the decision to bypass standard infection control procedure.
“The instructions to SA Health staff to reduce waiting times in EDs by moving infectious patients and violent mental health patients to open wards is unethical and unsafe,’’ he said.
“Hospitals are being forced to do this to avoid fines imposed by SA Health.
“We have to question why a Government Department fines itself for poor performance. This is just papering over the cracks.
“We need urgent and definitive solutions and this means … more beds.”