NURSES, midwives and their supporters attended rallies outside Sunshine Hospital and Western General Hospital in Footscray last Thursday.
Lisa Fitzpatrick from the Australian Nursing Federation’s Victorian branch said the State Government wanted to replace nurses with health assistants, as part of the four-patients-per-nurse ratio, and replace eight-hour shifts with split shifts and four-hour shifts.
But the ANF is seeking improved nurse and midwife patient ratios in a range of speciality areas such as emergency departments and palliative care, plus an 18.5 per cent wage rise over the life of their new agreement.
“Nurses and midwives will not go back to the bad old days of the 1990s when the hospital system was in crisis and 400 hospital beds were closed permanently because of the nurse shortage,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
