Page 1840 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2022
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
will do so. Those 90 full-time-equivalent nursing positions have been recruited, in addition to the three support staff positions that were funded by that $50 million commitment.
All of these time frames and all of these processes have been worked through with the union. There was an agreement with the union that ratios would be implemented through the enterprise agreement framework. That was part of the bargaining for the enterprise agreement. That is where the time frame of 1 February to commence implementation came from. The figures that Ms Castley has been using all day to support her argument are from two weeks into implementation. To give her credit, she has received great media from a crappy argument! She has really used the data she had to the best of her ability.
I think that that demonstrates that I was keeping an eye on this, and my office was keeping an eye on this. We were asking, “How are we going? We know we are supposed to be implementing from 1 February, so how are we going? How do we think we will be going? How are we going to make sure that by the end of June, when that amnesty period comes to an end, we will be compliant?” The answer is that we will be pretty close, but the workforce pressures mean we might not always be there for every shift, for every ward, every day. But that is our commitment—unlike the Canberra Liberals who have never committed to it.
I look forward to Ms Castley, in her closing, committing the Canberra Liberals to nurse-patient ratios, and, if they are elected at the next election, to continuing to implement the ratios framework and to working with the ANMF on any further ratio framework phases that may still need to be implemented. We are currently working with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation on the second phase of ratios, and I have had a number of conversations with Mr Daniel and his team about what we need to prioritise through that. We are also working with them on the next phase of the Towards a Safer Culture project so that we can ensure that our nurses and midwives are well supported in the workplace and that they have a safe workplace. We very much appreciate our partnership with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation on these issues of ratios, on workloads more broadly and on staff safety. We continue to have conversations with them about their third priority, which is consultation in the workplace.
In addition to the commitment to ratios, the ACT government also committed to hiring an additional 400 health professionals, including nurses, across this term of government. Since the 2020 election, we have funded an additional 257 full-time-equivalent staff to join our teams. As I spoke about last week, the number of staff at our health services continues to grow year on year. In phase 1 of the ratios, as Ms Castley has been talking about, they are being implemented across 21 wards at both public hospitals. As I have said, I can confirm that all 21 wards have now implemented the requirements of the ratio framework.
I can also assure the Assembly that managers of each of these wards are publishing their rosters in compliance with the ratio measures. The very real issue here is, as I have said, the same issue that all workforces are facing in the ACT. We have talked about it in question time in relation to the experience of the ambulance service over
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video