Wage freeze could present huge issues for the NT retaining hospital staff: ANMF NT’s Cath Hatcher

The Territory government is showing little sign of budging on its public service pay freeze, despite warnings it could harm the NT’s hospital system.

THE Territory government is showing little sign of budging on its public service pay freeze, despite warnings it could put further pressure on the NT’s hospital system.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation NT branch secretary Cath Hatcher said the NT would face huge issues retaining staff if the ­government went ahead with the freeze.

“We are calling on the Gunner government to overturn that decision,” she said.

“We have always struggled to retain staff within the Territory prior to Covid.

“We have got extra staff shortages because of Covid with people working in ­quarantine and vaccination clinics and that’s not going to go away overnight.”

The Territory’s nurses and midwives are among the top-three best paid in the country.

But the NT does not have set nurse-to-patient ratios meaning Territory nurses often have at least seven ­patients to care for in a single shift.

In Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT there are mandated ratios of four patients per nurse per shift. Ms Hatcher said the pay freeze would see the NT slip out of the top three best-paid jurisdictions and make it harder to attract staff.

“Why would you want to come to the NT and have a larger workload and basically a lower wage?” she said.

Ms Hatcher also warned staff who did come would not stay.

“They might do three or six months in the dry season and then ‘see you later’,” she said.

Nurses received a 2.5 per cent annual pay rise under their last enterprise bargaining agreement, which expires next year. From 2022, they have been offered a one-off $1000 bonus but no pay increase.

Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the NT government was balancing a difficult budgetary situation with the need to attract and retain staff.

“We value our staff, they do an incredible job, whether it’s a nurse or someone working in a remote community through to someone in our hospital acute setting,” she said. “Those enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations will continue, we have offered $1000, we believe that is managing our budget.

“It will allow us to keep staff. We don’t want to be in a position where we have to sack staff,” Ms Fyles said.