Nurses in NSW have voted to take strike action for the first time in almost a decade, saying the Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted staffing and pay issues.
Thousands of midwives and nurses are planning to walk off the job for up to 24 hours on February 15, which will heap extra pressure on already stretched hospitals.
NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association general secretary Brett Holmes said workers had been campaigning for nurse-to-patient ratios on a shift-by-shift basis for almost 10 years.
“What they’ve been through in the last two years has strengthened their determination to get this NSW government to understand that to give them hope for the future they need a commitment … to deliver on proper xjmtzywstaffing on every shift, certainly outside of this pandemic,” he told the Today show on Wednesday.
“So nurse-to-patient ratios, decent staffing for midwives so that they match the number of mothers and babies that they’ve got to look after, and decent recognition in their pay for the work that they undertake and the value that they add to the community.
“I don’t think anyone could quibble with the idea that nurses and midwives and other health workers have worked extraordinarily hard, and they deserve financial recognition as well as pats on the back.”
Mr Holmes said members had been asked to leave behind enough staff to deliver life-preserving care during the strike action.
“The health system prepared itself for a massive loss of nurses during the worst of the Delta and Omicron outbreaks, so they’ve got plans and we’re saying, ‘Well, you can test them now and see what it’s like without the nurses at the bedside’,” he said.
“I think the community understand that nurses and midwives take this sort of action as a last resort.
“They are desperate to tell the NSW government that we need a better health system, we need a health system where there are enough nurses and midwives on every shift to look after the patients in their care.”
