Fed Govt's Aged Care Nursing Neglect

Date: 20 May 2003

The Federal Government's announcement today of 80 extra aged care nurses for regional and rural NSW continues to ignore the real reasons for the shortage of aged care nurses, the NSW Nurses Association said today.

Today's announcement of a re-entry program for 80 aged care nurses in the Greater Murray, New England, North Coast and Mid West regions of NSW comes less than a week after the NSWNA strongly criticised the Federal Government for its continuing neglect of aged care nursing in last week's Federal budget.

NSWNA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, there is obviously nothing wrong in itself with running a re-entry program, but it is not a real solution to the problems confronting over-worked and underpaid aged care nurses

"In this regard, the Federal Government stands condemned by its own budget documents (Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future - pp 18-19), which state:

'There is a pressing need to respond to the current shortage of working nurses due largely to the high attrition rate of nurses from the workforce, coupled with increasing demand for nursing places. The Commonwealth notes that the Review of Nursing Education emphasised the need for improved conditions and remuneration in order to improve retention in the nursing profession.

In large part it is the responsibility of State and Territory governments to ensure that nursing graduates remain in the system. In the expectation that the States and Territories will accept their responsibility in this regard, the Commonwealth will provide an additional 210 nursing places in regional campuses...'

"Here the Federal Government admits that working conditions are as important as training places in solving the nurse shortage, but continues to do nothing in the area where it has direct control of the funding - aged care.

"It is unacceptable that, at the same time as it is lecturing State and Territory governments on their responsibilities towards nursing, it has shirked its responsibility to provide 'improved conditions and remuneration in order to improve retention' in the aged care sector. It is well known that low relative wages and heavy workloads in the aged care sector are driving many nurses out of the sector and the profession.

"The latest pay offer from the State's nursing home and hostel operators would leave NSW aged care nurses earning between 12 and 14 per cent less than nurses at the nearby public hospitals. This is totally unacceptable and current Federal Government policies are contributing to the problem.

"As I said in the NSWNA response to the Federal Budget, this is something the NSWNA will be asking the Federal Parliament to look closely at when the budget is fully debated and voted on.

"The only way we can genuinely rebuild nursing as an attractive career option and maintain a high-quality aged care system is to ensure there is wage parity for nurses across all our health and aged care sectors.

"It is time the Federal Government accepted its 'responsibility in this regard' and if it won't then the Parliament should make it do so," Mr Holmes said.

For further information

Contact:	John Moran
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
Contact Mobile:	0410 603 278

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