The strike action at the Forbes Hospital last Thursday lasted for an hour at shift change and was part of the state-wide 24-hour strike.
Nurses, midwives and hospital staff in Forbes took part in the third state-wide strike action last Thursday.
“We were only able to strike for one hour at change of shift, for which pay will be docked,” said Chloe Scheul, assistant secretary of the Forbes District Hospital Branch of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA).
“We are fighting for safe staffing levels across the public health system. The need is urgent, staffing is in crisis and the health system is not coping,” said Chloe. “The NSW government has refused our requests for safe patient care and our immediate calls for shift-by-shift nursing and midwifery ratios. Every shift, NSW nurses and midwives are confronted with short staffing, excessive workloads and are stretched beyond what is reasonable or safe to keep our health system functioning.”
She said the changes they wanted to staffing ratios were not unreasonable or exorbitant. “We need a guaranteed number of nurses and midwives on every shift, so we can provide safe patient care.”
In her speech at the strike Chloe said: “We advocate for our patients and their families every day. We fight to ensure people have access to the best quality care. We fight to preserve dignity. When we are worried about a patient, we will fight to keep them safe, not stopping until they get the care they need.”
She said the premier and health minister had both admitted there were problems with nursing and midwifery staffing levels, while the treasurer said their demands were reasonable, but they still fail to act.
“We are the ones face-to-face with human suffering when the health system is inadequate to meet needs. We are the ones doing double shifts, overtime, coming in on our days off because we care about our patients and colleagues,” said Chloe in her speech.
“We will continue to fight for our patients and our community.”