Nurse Shortage Forces Bed Closures

Date: 16 July 2002

Conciliation talks between Queensland Nurses Union officials and representatives of the Queensland Government are scheduled to restart in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission today, and continue for most, if not the rest, of this week.

The QNU believes the conciliation has made reasonable progress to-date and has therefore agreed to abide by an AIRC recommendation that industrial action known as "bed closures" be suspended this week "for as long as the Commission and the parties are of the view that reasonable progress is being made in the conciliation".

In making these recommendations on bed closures the AIRC has said safe patient care and reasonable workloads for nurses must be maintained.

Nearly all other work bans by QNU members at public hospitals and community healthcare facilities throughout the State remain in place. Nurses at about 90 facilities have implemented work bans.

The work bans are part of the Nurses: Worth Looking After campaign, launched by the QNU in March this year with the objective of rebuilding Queensland's nursing workforce through:

· improving nurse wages;
· ensuring workloads are safe for both patients and staff;
· ensuring nurse education programs are appropriate and affordable;
· an improved and safer workplace environment; and
· the implementation of workforce planning strategies that address the needs of a predominately female and shift-working workforce.

QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said while bed closures due to industrial action have been suspended, reports are already coming in from hospitals that beds remain closed or have again been closed because of a shortage of nursing staff.

"For example, I have received a report that within a short time of opening 11 beds at Emerald Hospital on the weekend, nine were closed again because of a shortage of staff. I understand a similar situation exists at Hervey Bay Hospital. This means we are starting to see the real impact of the nurse shortage on service delivery. And in the end that is what this campaign is all about - solving the nurse shortage and rebuilding our public health services," Ms Hawksworth said.

For further information

Contact:	Gay Hawksworth
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
Phone:	07-3840 1444
Contact Mobile:	0419-726 678

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