As Central Coast hospitals continue to feel the strain, Shadow Minister for Health, Ryan Park, visited the region last week to outline Labor’s plan to tackle the health staff crisis gripping the state if elected next March.
Accompanied by Member for Gosford Liesl Tesch, Labor Candidate for Terrigal Sam Boughton, representatives of the Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) and nurses and health workers from Gosford Hospital, Park said under Labor’s plan, $175M will be used to recruit an additional 1,200 nurses and midwives within the first four years of a Minns Government.
Labor will also reform the current nursing rostering system and replace it with an enforceable minimum shift-by-shift staffing model, he said.
This will mean more nurses in Emergency Departments and other urgent care wards with a rollout to each ward based on priority.
“We have committed to removing the public sector wage cap which has limited pay increases to 2.5 per cent for nurses and health workers since the NSW Liberal Government’s election in 2011,” Park said.
“This has effectively resulted in real pay cuts for public sector workers for more than a decade.
“Under Labor’s plan, $150M is committed to fund an additional 500 paramedics over four years, to ease the burden of chronic paramedic shortages and the strained rural and regional health system.”
Tesch said the announcement followed the release of new data revealed by the NSWNMA and the latest round of Bureau of Health Information (BHI) statistics, which reveal huge nursing gaps in Central Coast hospitals and bad results for EDs, wait-times for ambulances and elective surgery.
“In August alone, hospitals within the CCLHD were understaffed by approximately 15,000 hours below the Nursing Hours Per Patient Day minimum (the minimum standard used by NSW Health by inpatient wards),” Tesch said.
“This is equal to almost 2,000 unfilled shifts by nurses.
“The latest round of Bureau of Health Information data also shows spikes in bed block, ambulance banking and ED wait times at Gosford and Wyong Hospitals.
“Patients waiting for ambulances also faced huge wait times particularly those who were classed as emergency.”
Tesch said elective surgery has also blown out with waiting times for non-urgent surgeries rising to the longest time on record for Gosford Hospital at 511 days (representing an increase of over 133 days since 2021).
Wyong Hospital’s non-urgent elective surgery waiting times now stand at 422 days, she said.
“This new data shows us all what nurses and patients know already; our hospitals are in acute crisis and our health workers are overstretched and overworked,” Tesch said.
“Our policy will employ more nurses at Gosford and Wyong’s hospital wards, ease the huge workload on our burnt out health staff and pay them a fair and decent wage.
“Our nurses deserve more than a pat on the back after years of COVID and no breaks.”
Boughton said many Central Coast health workers were feeling exhausted and overworked.
“Many nurses have left the profession because the conditions have become so hard,” he said.
“We need a government which cares for our nurses so that they can deliver quality care for our community”.
Source:
Media release, Dec 15
Member for Gosford, Liesl Tesch