Nurses’ union presses ahead with industrial action in Adelaide next week

The nurses’ union says it will press ahead with industrial action in Adelaide despite the government referring it to the state’s employment tribunal.

The nurses’ union says it will press ahead with industrial action across Adelaide’s public hospital network next week despite the government referring it to the state’s employment tribunal.

South Australian Health Minister Stephen Wade held crisis talks with major unions representing doctors, nurses and ambulance officers late today in an effort to avert industrial action that each had threatened because of hospital overcrowding, particularly in emergency departments.

It was the second such meeting in a fortnight.

Mr Wade has blamed the poorly designed and inefficient new $2.4 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital — once ranked the third most expensive building in the world — for clogging the system since its opening a year ago.

Mr Wade said the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s plan to limit elective surgery was a “significant threat” to patient safety.

“That’s why SA Health has taken the matter to the industrial tribunal … we support that,” he said.

An SA Employment Tribunal hearing has been scheduled for tonight.

Mr Wade said no patient would receive better health care as a result of the nurses’ actions.

“In fact, the opposite will happen,” he said.

“We need to put patients first, not politics.”

ANMF state secretary Elizabeth Dabars said the government had failed to meet its demands, primarily the opening of 50 additional hospital beds across the metropolitan hospital network.

The ANMF had also sought a commitment that 20 mental health beds be made available at the currently defunct Repatriation General Hospital in Adelaide’s south.

The former Labor government last year closed the Repat as part of its failed Transforming Health policy.

Elective surgeries will be limited from Thursday, while “rolling rallies” will commence Monday, Ms Dabars said.

“It is disappointing that the state government has failed to respond to the clear cries for help from our nurses at the frontline who are now officially beyond breaking point,” she said.

“We believe the Minister has it in his hands to actually bring about the circuit breaker much needed in our hospital system, yet he has refused to act.

“This is a case of the Minister deciding not to step up and lead.”

Ms Dabars said patients would see “very little disturbance” as a result of the industrial action.

Ambulance officers will consider not processing bills, while hospital doctors will support the industrial action and wage their own campaign.

“Our members are furious,” South Australian Ambulance Employees Association secretary Phil Palmer said.

Mr Wade said 46 patients had been moved from metropolitan to country hospitals over the past fortnight.

Patients have also started being moved to private hospitals, with the government making 20 private beds available.

Reopening the Repat was a “medium term strategy”, rather than an option for immediate relief, Mr Wade said.

“The damage done by Labor over 16 years (of government) and its Transforming Health policy won’t be fixed overnight,” he said.

“We are not going to let the nurses’ union, which stood by when the Repat was closed, tell us how we should use the beds that they failed to stop being closed.”