Nurses’ union commence industrial action over ‘breaking point’ staff shortages

Nurses working in a specialist unit in the Royal Hobart Hospital have launched industrial action over severe staff shortages. What they want to see.

Nurses within the Royal Hobart Hospital’s medical imaging unit have launched industrial action over severe staff shortages.

The nurses’ union has vowed to continue industrial action if severe staffing shortages are not immediately resolved, saying unsafe working conditions at the Royal Hobart Hospital are pushing members to “breaking point”.

Representatives from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) met with the Department of Health on Wednesday to demand an immediate staffing uplift in the RHH’s medical imaging department, which employs around 25 nurses.

Australian Nursing and Midwife Federation Tasmania Branch Secretary Phoebe Mansell said staffing shortages meant nurses within the unit were being forced to work “onerous” amounts of overtime and on-call rosters, and perform non-nursing duties beyond their scope of practice, including emptying bins.

The ANMF have demanded an immediate staffing uplift in the Royal Hobart Hospital’s medical imaging unit. Picture: supplied

“They are being forced to work unsustainable and unsafe hours, including excessive overtime and on-call rosters as frequent as every two to three days, far exceeding the agreed maximum of one in six,” Ms Mansell said.

“These on-call shifts are stacked on top of full rosters that regularly run into overtime due to procedures frequently extending beyond scheduled hours.

“This is a clear and escalating work health and safety risk.”

Nurses within the unit pledged on Tuesday to refuse to work overtime, cease performing non-nursing duties and take additional 30-minute fatigue management breaks when rostered on-call.

ANMF Tasmania members Annette Beechey and Phoebe Mansell at the Launceston General Hospital strike, 03/08/2022. Picture: Alex Treacy

The latest round of industrial action comes after the ANMF took the government to the state Industrial Commission over what it described as ongoing staff shortages across the state’s major hospitals.

Ms Mansell said the ANMF first notified the health department about the worsening conditions within the RHH’s medical imaging department on January 31, and vowed to push on with action unless they provided “immediate and tangible” solutions.

“Due to the current state of the health system, members more broadly have indicated their intent to want to take industrial action themselves across all major hospitals in the state,” she said.

“Here we’re talking about a highly specialist area where staff can’t be deployed from other units in the hospital.

“The last thing nurses want to do is impact patient care … but nurses are not feeling safe to continue working in this conditions and unless the department provides some safe staffing measures this action will continue.”

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) film for Brain disease diagnosis with medical doctor diagnosing elderly ageing patient neurodegenerative illness problem seeing for neurological medical treatment

The Department of Health maintained it had committed to ongoing staff recruitment, and was working closely with the ANMF to “consider and resolve concerns”.

“It is disappointing that industrial action has been implemented outside industrially agreed-upon processes in which the parties are engaged,” the spokesperson said.

“The Department is working closely with all parties to minimise any impact on patient services due to industrial action.”

Originally published as Nurses’ union commence industrial action over ‘breaking point’ staff shortages