NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Wingecarribee delegate Kay Paviour discusses local staffing concerns

As nurses across the state start a one to 24-hour work stoppage over pay and conditions, a Wingecarribee nurse and union delegate has spoken out about the issues facing the Southern Highlands.

With nurses across Southern NSW voting in favour of a two-hour stop-work from 2pm on Tuesday, the Wingecarribee branch delegate for NSWNMA has spoken out about issues facing the Southern Highlands.

Nurses and midwives from Bowral & District Hospital, Goulburn Base Hospital, Yass and Queanbeyan will be tuning in online to a mass meeting at Sydney Town Hall from 2pm, to discuss the association’s next steps for safe staffing ratios in light of last week’s NSW budget.

While some branches voted to take a 12 or 24-hour stop-work strike action, hospitals such as Bowral aren’t able to do that, according to Wingecarribee delegate Kay Paviour.

Wingecarribee delegate for NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, Kay Paviour.

“We don’t feel like we can take a longer strike action here in Bowral because we are a small institution and just don’t have the staffing numbers,” Ms Paviour said.

“This is a very careful and strategic time we’ve chosen to do this as we’ve got a crossover of shifts.

“Patient care will never be compromised.”

When discussing the main purpose of the strike, Ms Paviour pinned it down to “looking at the workloads and trying to get safe patient care across all of (the) shifts for our patients and their families.”

“I don’t think nursing has taken industrial action lightly and the fact that it’s gotten to this point should really tell everybody that we have put up with an awful lot and it really is time (for the government) to support us to achieve some improvements.

“It does sometimes feel that they’re (the government) not listening and are saying that the healthcare system is coping, but from what you see on the inside every single day over a 24-hour period it certainly doesn’t look like it.’

She also painted a picture of life on the “inside” as a health care professional at Bowral & District Hospital.

“You can easily start an eight-hour shift and stay for 14 to 16 hours,” Ms Paviour said.

“People can only do that for so long, you can’t keep stretching yourself thin.

“We certainly try to look after each other by doing an extra shift over time to be there for our colleagues and patients, but that comes at a cost to our health, both physical and mental.

“And then it doesn’t stop after your 16-hour shift as you come home and do your unpaid labour.”

She also said that staff will often go without morning tea and lunch breaks “to have completed all the work that’s necessary”.

Bowral and District Hospital. Picture: Wesley Lonergan

Due to the financial constraints, smaller hospitals like Bowral “run on a different timeline to what visitors and patients would like” and “things run a bit slower”, she said.

“It’s like going to a supermarket and finding there is no lettuce – you can’t make it appear,” Ms Paviour said.

“We (healthcare workers) limp along and do the absolute best we can day to day.”

Ms Paviour said that management at Bowral & District Hospital was supportive but there could only be so much they do without government support.

“They are trying to work with us but we are really all in this together and if we could get more staffing it’ll certainly help management as well, rather than looking at an empty barrel that has nothing left to give,” Ms Paviour said.

Nurses and midwives gathered outside Member for Goulburn and Minister for Local Government Wendy Tuckerman's office earlier this year to lobby for better staff to patient ratios.

NSWNMA Acting General Secretary Shaye Candish, said in considering last week’s NSW budget and the Ministry of Health’s wages and conditions offer, the NSWNMA Council had expressed support for members’ pursuit of safe staffing ratios.

“There’s widespread dissatisfaction amongst our members over the NSW government’s refusal to even consider safe staffing ratios, what’s been outlined in the budget, and serious transparency concerns about the announced workforce enhancements and regional incentives,” Ms Candish said.

“The government is continuing to ignore the pleas of highly-skilled clinical professionals who remain extremely worried about the delivery of safe patient care now and into the future.

“A key concern is how little this health funding is targeted. Our members need these taxpayer dollars to be delivered directly into nursing and midwifery staffing, rather than the thousands of dollars our members report being spent right now on cupcakes.

“The insensitivity is offensive, given we still have nurses and midwives working understaffed every day.”

The following day on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for NSW Health said the below:

“The NSW Government and NSW Health will continue to engage in discussions with the NSW Nurses and Midwives‘ Association and remain committed to reaching a resolution in the best interests of our patients and healthcare workers.”

“NSW Health is considering its options with respect to the strike action taken yesterday, in defiance of orders from the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC).”

“All public sector workers, including nurses, will be offered remuneration increases of up to 6.5 per cent over two years under a new NSW Government wages policy.”

“In addition, the NSW Government is providing health workers with a one-off $3,000 thank you payment in recognition of work during the pandemic.”