South Australian Government backflips and agrees to reopen beds at the RAH
HEALTH Minister Jack Snelling has today gone back on a decision to close beds at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, following pressure from angry nurses.
AFTER repeatedly refusing to backdown on bed closures at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Health Minister Jack Snelling on Friday committed to reopen space for general medical patients following pressure from angry nurses.
A 1.30pm legal battle in the Industrial Relations Commission between the State Government and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation resulted in a huge win for nurses that will mean ward S7 - that caters for at least 20 patients - will reopen from Monday.
It means planned industrial action, including a refusal from nurses to admit patients unless they had a designated hospital ward, will not proceed.
But despite repeated concerns about patient safety from doctors and nurses, Mr Snelling has not committed to permanently reopening the beds.
It comes following the State Government's announcement they would close 55 beds at the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals.
The government’s plans for the remaining 35 beds remain unclear but will be the subject of ongoing discussion in the coming weeks.
ANMF chief executive officer adjunct Professor Elizabeth Dabars said she was pleased with the result and was looking forward to further discussions with the government over the coming weeks.
“We understand that beds at S7 will be opened from Monday and flexed up to meet the demands and the needs of the community,” she said.
“One of the really important commitments that we’ve received is that as a result of opening these beds at S7 that people who were formally from S7 who would have been occupying a corridor or a treatment room no longer will be doing that.”
Prof Dabars said the union would keep fighting the bed closures unless they saw solid evidence to support the beds were not needed.
“We understand at this present time those beds will remain open until we have concluded those discussions,” she said.
“All of the evidence would have to be put before us to demonstrate the safe closure for those beds to be closed.”
Health Minister Jack Snelling said both the union and the government had “reached a very sensible outcome”.
“Any modernisation of the health system is always going to have bumpy roads … but I’m very happy to see both parties have got together and been able to work out a sensible compromise,” he said.
But Mr Snelling could not guarantee a permanent future for the ward.
“(We will) continue to have discussions with the nurses’ federation - that’s what we’ve committed to doing in good faith,” he said.
Earlier today, it was revealed Mr Snelling ignored a direct plea from nurses to sit down and discuss major concerns about the closures and instead, slapped the union with a date in court.
In a letter addressed to Mr Snelling - and SA Health’s chief executive officer Vickie Kaminski - on January 18, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation sought to seek a resolution on the State Government’s decision to close 55 beds at the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals.
“ANMF (SA Branch) officers remain available to meet to discuss members’ concerns and seek to resolve the issues,” the letter states.
After making genuine attempts to sit down with Minister Snelling, Prof Dabars said she was disappointed the result had come to this.
“We have approached his office to try and get an intervention before we went out to our members about the issue, we have again approached the Minister in written correspondence (on January 18) following our meetings asking for the opportunity to meet,” she said.
“We think that taking us, as a reaction, to the Industrial Relations Commission rather than sitting down around a table and hashing these issues out is completely misguided.
“It is a ridiculous way of solving these issues.”
Prof Dabars - and the SA Salaried Medical Officers Association - has previously said the decision to close the beds was made without proper consultation or evidence.
“It’s about time the Minister listened to the people at the bedside and not listen to the bean counters,” she said.
“The issue remains whether they’re trying to save face or not – we’re trying to save our patients.
“We’re not going to back down on this.”
Yesterday, Minister Snelling said: “My bottom line is I want the nurses’ union back at the table — I want to talk with them about what we can do to address concerns that they’ve raised”.
“My concern is the welfare of patients and I don’t want to see patients being caught in the crossfire because of a disagreement between the nurses union and the Royal Adelaide Hospital,” he said.