SA nurses threaten industrial action over new RAH safety concerns
THE head of SA Health was unaware the state’s peak nursing union is threatening industrial action over a series of serious patient safety concerns at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital until this morning.
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THE head of SA Health was unaware the state’s peak nursing union is threatening industrial action over a series of serious patient safety concerns at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital until this morning.
SA Health chief executive Vickie Kaminski admitted she did not know the extent of concerns from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation until fresh concerns were highlighted in a parliamentary budget and finance committee on Monday morning.
Just two weeks after the $2.3 billion new RAH opened its doors, the union has raised 13 major concerns with the new hospital, including patient “line of sight issues”; delays in receipt of blood products, drugs and equipment; and inadequate space, equipment and drugs for emergency intubation.
ANMF chief executive officer Adjunct Professor Elizabeth Dabars said the issues were “very serious” and needed to be “fixed in a timely manner to make sure the care of the public is safe”.
Prof Dabars highlighted the issues, which affect about 100 nursing staff, with Central Adelaide Local Health Network head Jenny Richter late last week and is awaiting her response.
“What we are now awaiting is a rectification plan on how they’re going to fix the problems,” she said.
“At this stage, I couldn’t say whether we are going to undertake action or not (but) any action we do take would certainly be in order to avoid any unsafe practises.”
An ANMF bulletin outlining the issues says “members have reported concerns about their ability to provide safe patient care due to faults in the system” and goes on to say the union has “escalated these matters to the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (as a) matter of urgency”.
Ms Kaminski said she was aware “there has been some issues as we’re bedding down the nRAH and we heard some of those frustrations last week (but) I hadn’t heard any more about it until just now in the budget and finance committee meeting”.
She said she was “confident” the issues would be resolved.
“Things like equipment not being readily available, having to wait for it to be delivered … that is frustrating but isn’t endangering patient care,” she said.
“There is a lot of things you could put it (the issues) down to — it’s a huge facility so things aren’t right at your elbow like they were in very cramped quarters.”
Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said it was “unacceptable” that nurses had been forced to threaten industrial action so soon after the RAH opening.
“It was very surprising that the CEO of SA Health was not aware of a very concerning industrial action that’s emerging,” he said.
“The nRAH has gone well beyond teething problems when you’ve got the largest nursing union threatening industrial action at our premier site only two weeks into the opening of the new facility.
“We’ve got a whole series of safety concerns raised — it shows a real lack of engagement with clinicians in the design and implementation of this facility.”
Other issues raised in this morning’s meeting included problems with the hospital’s catering and cleaning services provider, Spotless.
Patients have complained about issues including late food delivery and poor food standards.
“The entire Royal Adelaide Hospital is new to everybody — you expect to see some of these little things happen,” Ms Kaminski said.
“Late delivery, food that’s not at the right temperature, food that’s not pleasant to look at as well as tasty isn’t what we want — we want to have all of those things corrected and we know Spotless does as well.”
The Advertiser is seeking comment from the ANMF.