Hospitals will be stretched thin on Tuesday as thousands of nurses are set to walk off the job for 24 hours despite being banned from taking industrial action.
Crisis talks between health authorities and nursing industry representatives failed to reach a resolution ahead of the planned strike.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard met with representatives from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association on Monday, but no agreement could be reached to address staffing issues and pay rates.
NSW Health on Monday sought the assistance of the Industrial Relations Commission, which resulted in the strike action being banned.
Nursing industry representatives say the action will go ahead as planned.
Mr Hazzard has gone head to head with the union, saying it is “disappointing” nurses are pushing ahead with the strike in defiance of the decision from the industrial watchdog.
“It’s unfortunate, I’ll put it that way, that having the clear decision of the IRC and having in mind the government has actually been open – I had an hour and 10 minute talk with them yesterday morning,” Mr Hazzard told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“I think it’s particularly disappointing.
“I’ve seen the notice that went out straight after the IRC report and they completely breached it, they did tell nurses to come to strike today.”
Mr Hazzard said the main issue being discussed was nurse ratios with patients, not payment.
Although Mr Hazzard’s meeting with the union on Monday morning was “helpful”, advice he received from the Ministry of Health was that the ratios should stay in place for now.
“The ratio that applies in their health system is the ratio that applied with the consentxjmtzyw of the union and actually introduced by the Labor government 11 years ago,” Mr Hazzard said.
“We have continued that and spoke again to the ministry so that the senior public officials that advise on these things, and they were saying that it just removes any of the flexibility that managers have to manage wards.”
Despite no signs of a quick resolution, Mr Hazzard said he had asked the ministry to look at what could be done to alleviate the nurses’ concerns.
NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association general secretary Brett Holmes joined the minister on air, saying change is necessary.
“Nurses and midwives are out today showing to your government that change is necessary,” Mr Holmes said.
“They want significant change to occur and they need it to start happening now … this is, as you know, a very difficult decision for nurses to make in the normal circumstances, but they are so angry about what they’ve experienced.”
Mr Holmes said nurses were worried that their futures were not going to get better if there wasn’t significant change and a commitment to better ratios.
However, Mr Hazzard said it was something both men knew “couldn’t be done just in a way” that Mr Holmes wanted.
But Mr Holmes said the minister had a misunderstanding of what the union was fighting for.
“We need to know that nurses and midwives go to work on every shift and that there has been every effort and legal requirement for management to provide the numbers of nurses to match the numbers of patients that they have in beds,” he said.
“We’ve got to fix this problem but it’s got to be on the basis that nurses and midwives can go to work every day knowing that there will be enough of them to deliver safe patient care.”
Mr Hazzard promised to work with Mr Holmes and the union but was still disappointed about the industrial action.
“I am disappointed about the action today particularly in defiance of the IRC, but look, that’s not going to stop us working together,” Mr Hazzard said.
Tuesday’s industrial action will be the largest since July 2013 as hospitals across NSW remain on high alert for Covid-19 patients.
Thousands of nurses and midwives from more than 150 public hospitals voted in favour of the strike on Tuesday amid calls for better staffing and more pay.
Nurses are fighting for a pay rise of more than 2.5 per cent to compensate for the pay freeze, which was imposed just as the pandemic began in 2020.
