Vic nurses to shut beds and cancel planned surgeries in pay fight
Victorian nurses are threatening to shut up to a quarter of public hospital beds and cancel planned surgeries unless the state government offers a better pay deal within two weeks.
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Victorian nurses will shut up to a quarter of public hospital beds and cancel planned surgeries unless the government offers a better pay deal within two weeks.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Victorian branch members voted in favour of a “last resort” protected action ballot – after rejecting the government’s offer of a 3 per cent wage increase – in a historic vote on Tuesday.
The union called for measures to “reverse” the growing casualisation of the workforce on Tuesday and want better penalty and incentive payments to retain permanent workers.
Tuesday’s result means nurses and midwives can take more than 25 actions – from wearing union T-shirts at work to stopping planned surgeries and closing beds on wards.
Stage two measures – which include bed and theatre restrictions – will kick in on 7am Friday May 17, while stage one measures – such as refusing to work overtime and wearing campaign shirts at work – begin next week.
The wide-reaching stage 2 measures allow theatre nurses to ban one in four elective cases, with exemptions only in place for neonatal and paediatric cases, and surgical terminations.
Elective surgery can range from hip replacements to an operation to remove a cancerous tumour.
Staff can also close up to a quarter of hospital beds, plus an additional two on every ward or unit – which will be deemed as “emergency beds” and only used for patients who will deteriorate “significantly” without care in the next 24 hours.
The union is required to give health services seven days notice before shutting surgeries or closing beds, and there are exemptions to bed shutdowns for neonatal, paediatric, haemodialysis, maternity, oncology, palliative, abortions, intensive care, coronary care and high dependency patients.
Hospital outpatients will also be impacted, with outpatient nurses and midwives allowed to ban one in four new referrals and outpatient appointments, while aged care assessment and community health nurses will turn down up to a third of public health referrals.
Other union measures include:
STAFF taking their full meal breaks and finishing work when their shift is supposed to end unless overtime is approved in writing, in advance
STOPPING work for up to four hours to attend union meetings, so long as doing so won’t endanger workers or patients health, safety or welfare.
NO recording or reporting of ambulance offload times at emergency departments
NO collecting and recording patient data (that is not required by law to be collected and does not directly relate to patient or staff safety)
REFUSING to work in areas unless the union’s campaign material – such as petitions and flyers – can be displayed.
ANMF Victoria branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said “nurses and midwives take industrial action as a last resort when no one is listening to them”.
“These bans will be disruptive and may cause inconvenience, but they will not impact on patient health or welfare,” she said.
She said the elective surgery cancellations would not impact cancer patients.
“The nursing and midwifery workforce is the backbone of the public health system, but it’s fractured.
“Hospital spending on unrostered and rostered overtime and agency nurses and midwives has doubled over the last four years alone, hospitals could save a bucketload of money if they rebuild their permanent workforce.”
The union projects hospital spending on overtime, agency and casual nurses will hit $3 billion, up from $291m last year.
“Reversing the casualisation of the workforce will take a higher and more nuanced package than the government’s blunt three per cent wages policy,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
She said the overwhelming support — 98 per cent of voters voted yes to industrial action – show nurses and midwives had reached a tipping point, pointing out ballots in previous years had failed to reach the required majority.
Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the government “would always back our nurses and midwives and the extraordinary work they do to provide Victorians with world-class care”.
“Bargaining continues between the parties and we expect them to reach a resolution as soon as possible,” she said.
The Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association is representing Victoria’s public hospitals – whose boards ultimately report to the Health Minister in the EBA negotiations.
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