One in four Victorian hospital beds face closure in massive pay dispute
The Allan government’s election campaign may be derailed by a pay dispute that could see one in four public hospital beds closed across the state as rooms are left filthy and surgeries like heart valve replacements delayed.
One in four public hospital beds would be closed across the state in a major escalation of industrial action by healthcare workers fighting the Allan government over a new pay deal.
Category 2 and 3 surgeries would also be paused in a move that would heap pressure on Victoria’s 60,000-strong surgery waiting list and derail the beginning of the Allan government’s election year.
Affected workers — which include cooks and cleaners, orderlies and security guards, ward clerks, allied health assistants, theatre technicians and phlebotomists — would force beds to close by refusing to clean them when patients depart, and have also threatened to ban the cleaning of all non-clinical areas such as offices, corridors, and public spaces.
Health Workers Union lead organiser, Jake McGuinness, said the current four-year, 3 per cent annual pay rise on offer was an insult to already low-paid workers.
“If the dispute is not resolved, we will escalate work bans in January,” he said.
“The clock is ticking for the government to give essential healthcare workers a liveable wage — so that Victoria can avoid an escalation of its healthcare crisis.
“The HWU wants more direct engagement with the Minister so that further industrial action, and further patient inconvenience, can be avoided.
“Only the Health Minister and the Premier have the power to end this dispute by offering a fair, liveable pay deal.”
Pausing surgeries could have major implications across the healthcare sector.
Semi-urgent category 2 surgeries — which are expected to be completed within 90 days — can include procedures such as heart valve replacements and nerve decompression surgery.
Category 3 surgeries — which are expected to be completed within a year — can include procedures such as tonsillectomies, non emergency hip replacements and non-cosmetic rhinoplasties.
On average Victorians are waiting 187 days longer than expected on the Category 2 surgery waitlist, though are waiting up to a year on average in some hospitals, and almost a year on the Category 3 waitlist, according to the latest Victorian Agency for Health Information data.
Victoria’s hospital waiting lists blew out during the pandemic, with the government later allocating $1.5bn to its Covid catch-up plan.
But in a report published in August the Victorian Auditor General found while the plan help reduced waiting lists, it failed to meet key program targets including not treating all patients who had been on the waiting list for longer than the recommended time frame by its March 2023 target date.
Last week workers from more than 80 healthcare providers walked off the job in a move the union claims saw more than 1000 elective surgeries cancelled.
Some Category 1 surgeries were also cancelled despite Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas telling parliament the government had “worked with the union to ensure that, while legal industrial action is being undertaken, there is no impact on critical care being delivered to patients in the state of Victoria”.
Mr McGuiness said healthcare workers would continue administrative bans throughout December, deliberately avoiding targeting patients.
Instead action would focus on revenue bans including a ban on processing of private health insurance claims and Medicare reimbursements for hospitals.
“No health worker wants to ruin someone’s Christmas, and we’ve structured bans to ensure patient care remains safe,” he said.
“The Victorian government is now costing taxpayers millions of dollars every single day in lost revenue, a completely avoidable expense.”
Government minister Melissa Horne said that the union had been in conversation with Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas about working to “bed down” the pay dispute before action escalated.
“The Victorian government absolutely stands by healthcare workers and will continue to work with them to get their EBA done,” Ms Horne said.
Ms Horne could not say whether a deal was close, and only said the government was in “constant conversations” with the union.
“The Health Minister is working very closely with the union to be able to make sure that, you know, these workers who do such an important role are getting the remuneration and conditions that they deserve.”
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Originally published as One in four Victorian hospital beds face closure in massive pay dispute
