Page 1836 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2022
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The government said it would commit $50 million over four years to the first phase of ratio implementation and employ 90 new nurses and midwives—55 for the Canberra Hospital and 35 for Calvary Public Hospital Bruce. A Canberra Times article on 17 May revealed that 88 had been employed. But what we also know, Madam Speaker, is that our health system is in crisis and the government’s failure to do proper workforce planning has seen services cut across our hospital network.
Matthew Daniel from the nurses union has criticised the government over its inadequate workforce planning, saying it had “fallen off the wagon” over the past two years. Mr Daniel acknowledged that some workforce planning was done, but it was not based on evidence. He said:
We need to see ward-by-ward across the public sector. What is the age cohort? How many people are going to retire in the next little while? How many people have we got in the front door? How many graduates are we taking in and what services are we going to require over the coming years?
Mr Daniel’s final comment to the Canberra Times on 17 May was damning:
There is no one place where we can see a match between what demand for nurses and midwives is going to be and the supply.
A quick perusal of our newspaper headlines over the last month makes clear one thing: Canberra’s health system is in crisis. Consider these: “Hospitals grappling with ACT nurse crisis”, “Clinics face staff shortages”, “Services cut back to deal with demand”, “ACT’s senior nurse crisis”, “Health staff indicate intention to resign”, “Elective surgeries face delay” and “Surgery halt to come for strained system”. Just as a postscript, Madam Speaker, those headlines have all appeared in the last three weeks, since 17 May.
As well as calling on the government to provide nurse ratio compliance figures since February and to disclose whether the government is now fully compliant, this motion also addresses transparency. The motion calls on the Labor-Greens government to commit to publicly releasing nurse ratio compliance figures for CHS, as happens in the Queensland health system, and to commit to publicly releasing compliance figures for Calvary Public Hospital. The Queensland government introduced nurse to patient ratios in medical and surgical wards and mental health wards in 2016, and it provides quarterly compliance figures on its Health website. There is no reason the Labor-Greens government cannot do the same so Canberrans can hold their government to account for their running of the health system.
Madam Speaker, Canberra’s health system is not just under strain; it is cracking, and it has been for some time. Unfortunately, the situation is getting worse with the government’s failure to deliver on its nurse ratio commitment—just the latest evidence of a system unable to cope following the government’s recent decision to suspend elective surgeries. The health minister needs to stem the exodus of nurses from our health system, to fix a toxic culture of bullying and harassment, and to create a system where our nurses have ongoing professional development so they feel valued and respected for their knowledge, commitment and expertise. Finally, the minister
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