Nurses and midwives tell St Vincent’s Health: ‘Be a leader’

Mater and St Vincent’s Private Hospital branches decry company

NSWNMA branch officials at the Mater Hospital in North Sydney have challenged their employer, St Vincent’s Health Australia (SVHA), to “be a real leader in health care”.

Branch delegate Libby Wall and branch assistant secretary Suzanna Ersotelos delivered this message during a pre-Christmas rally of striking nurses and midwives.

Suzanna said working the last three years through COVID-19 had been really tough.

“We’ve lost a lot of staff and we’re not hiring enough new staff. We’re working many more hours of overtime, everyone’s tired, and mistakes can happen. We want to keep our patients safe.”

Asked if she had a message for SVHA, she replied: “We want you to be a leader in health care. We want you to make a change in NSW by bringing in staff ratios and increasing our pay.”

Delegate Libby Wall described the growing concerns of midwives trying to care for mothers and babies.

“It’s just becoming more exhausting and more unsafe,” she said.

“A good day for me is if I say I’ve managed to have a break, but very rarely [am I] off on time. That’s why we’re here today; we need things to change.”

She said the company’s pay offer would not even keep pace with inflation.

“We at least have to go beyond the CPI to make it a real wage increase.

“A lot of nurses with mortgages and young families are dropping to casual because they can’t deal with the heavy workload.

“They need to be able to pay their mortgages and energy bills and get their kids into childcare.”

She said SVHA should show leadership in setting workplace conditions.

“How exciting would it be if we had a waiting list of people wanting to come and work at SVPH? That would be such an exciting thing for management to be able to pick up.”

Unanimous Call For Ballot

NSWNMA branches at the Mater and SVPH voted unanimously to ask the union to seek a protected action ballot to authorise industrial action.

The resolution, passed by both branches, said it was “frustrated and disappointed with the length of time it is taking for SVHA to respond to our log of claims while continuing to deny nurses and midwives an agreement that recognises their vital contribution to safe patient care.”

The resolution said SVHA was using “stalling tactics” to delay negotiations and the finalisation of enterprise agreements that expired on 31 December 2021.

The Mater nurses’ and midwives’ rally coincided with a similar meeting across the harbour by SVPH nurses.

Among the speakers was Sinead Keane, assistant secretary of the NSWNMA branch at SVPH.

“It’s three days before Christmas; all of us would prefer to be inside getting on with our work, instead of being out here calling for help,” she said.

“But we’ve been calling for help for four years now and nobody has listened to us.

“We have watched loyal and experienced colleagues walk out the door.

“We’ve watched our workloads increase and we can’t deliver the patient care we want to deliver anymore.

“We’ve watched as our conditions have diminished and the cost of living has increased.

“We’re calling for help and no-one is listening.” n

Your fight is ours, say public nurses and midwives

The NSWNMA branch at St Vincent’s public hospital in Darlinghurst sent a message of solidarity to fellow nurses and midwives on strike at the adjacent St Vincent’s Private and the Mater.

Damien Davis-Frank, secretary of the NSWNMA St Vincent’s public hospital branch, told the rally, “This is a fight that we’re all experiencing.”

“Over the last year we have seen the public sector take to the streets four times.

“These conditions we are working under are not fair and not safe for us or our patients.

“We need to acknowledge that this health system is in real danger and we will keep fighting to get things going in the right direction.” n