Blacktown Hospital’s bid to stop nurses and midwives strike
Administrators at Blacktown Hospital have attempted to force striking nurses and midwives back to work.
Administrators at Blacktown Hospital have attempted to force striking nurses and midwives back to work amid a crisis over under-resourcing at the western Sydney hospital which is being blamed for a string of baby deaths.
Five newborns have died at Blacktown Hospital over the past 18 months, with the hospital in crisis amid understaffing concerns.
Executives at the Western Sydney Local Health District went to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission late on Thursday in an attempt to prevent nurses and midwives walking off the job.
The crisis comes after another baby death last week — the fifth in 18 months.
The nurses walked off the job at Blacktown Hospital late on Thursday amid a stoush with management over resourcing.
Women who were due to have elective caesarean sections on Friday were being referred to a local private hospital.
Executives at the WSLHD asked the IRC on Thursday to force the nurses back to work, arguing they had no right to strike. The executive was forced to employ casual staff to cover labour wards.
Midwives were unhappy that the executive was offering only 15 extra staff to cope with a big increase in births at Blacktown Hospital. The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association is arguing that staffing conditions at the hospital are dire and unsafe.
The hospital was plunged into crisis this week when the entire obstetrics staff threatened to resign after requesting for months that staffing and access to operating theatres be increased.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has ordered a review of the hospital. The Western Sydney Local Health District is investigating the circumstances of the fifth baby death. The hospital is unclear whether clinical issues contributed to the death, but doctors say resourcing issues were a contributing factor.
The number of births at Blacktown Hospital has increased markedly in recent time. Roughly 4200 babies a year are delivered there, while nearby Westmead Hospital performs 4900 births. Westmead, however, has about five times the number of skilled full-time equivalent staff.
Twenty obstetricians at Blacktown Hospital recently threatened to resign en-masse over staffing and conditions. The doctors who threatened to resign have been requesting more registrars after several were transferred to Westmead. Apart from the consultant obstetricians, Blacktown Hospital’s obstetrics department is largely staffed by unaccredited registrars, senior residents or career medical officers who are clinically untrained.
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