NSW public hospital nurses strike planned for March 31, April 1

Just over a month since NSW nurses went on strike, staff are poised to halt work for 24 hours — and the contingent is poised to exceed the 10,000 who protested in February.

More than 10,000 nurses across public hospitals in NSW, including Westmead, are poised to go on strike for 24 hours on Thursday March 31 when halting work is expected to plunge staff levels to “critically low”.

NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association branch members have until Friday to vote whether they will stop work from 7am on Thursday week to 7am on April 1.

Last Friday, nurses at the state’s largest hospital, Westmead, voted to strike and expect to send more than 400 staff to descend on State Parliament following the government’s failure to address pay increases and boost nurse-to-patient ratios.

The association’s Westmead branch secretary Tim Blofield said casual staff were called in to assist skeleton staff during last month’s strike but next week would see “critically low staffing” across multiple hospitals.

Some of the NSW public hospital nurses participate in the February 15 strike. Picture: Steven Saphore

“(At Westmead) we are expecting to close down elective surgery rooms so there will be increased discharges and decreased patient admissions,’’ he said.

Mr Blofield dismissed the government’s stance that nurses were coping.

“If the public hospital keeps going at this level, we’re putting the public at risk,’’ he said.

The Westmead contingent is expected to outnumber the February 15 strike because “nothing’s changed” and “there’s not much more these burnt out and angry nurses can suffer”.

NSWNMA general secretary Brett Holmes said the union awaited a response from the Premier and Health Minister for more staff and a 4.75 per cent pay increase.

“Our members have been through an extraordinary period of time over the last two years,’’ he said.

“They were already short-staffed before Covid and the government continues to say ‘it’s OK, you’re coping’, particularly when the new Premier came in and let the Omicron rip when our members were on their knees — that really convinced the nurses it was time to fight and our midwives to fight as well.

“They want guaranteed shift-to-shift ratios. The current system is broken.’’

Regional nurses will join Sydney counterparts to strike.

The union says the government monitored the nurse to patient count at midnight, not allowing a fair reflection of shortages.

A NSW Health spokesman said the government had engaged in extensive talks with the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association and that the staff-to-patient ratio system was flexible and considered the number of patients, their complexity, acuity and care needs.

“Since the start of the pandemic, NSW Health has engaged in forward planning with clinicians to ensure our hospitals have capacity to care for Covid-19 patients and meet workforce surges,’’ the spokesman said.

Between 2012 and 2021, the nursing workforce and midwifery workforce in NSW

increased by 9599 full-time equivalent staff, or 23 per cent, to 51,794.

He said the government was “on track” to meeting a commitment to invest in 5000 nurses and midwives from 2019-2022 under a $2.8 billion allocation to frontline staff.

“We continue to engage in talks and remain hopeful of making progress,’’ he said.

“NSW Health acknowledges the health workforce has worked tirelessly during the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. NSW Health recognises and is thankful for its committed workforce.’’

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