Last Thursday hundreds of ANMF (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation) members from St Vincent’s Private Hospital held their second stop work and rallied in Melbourne for their campaign to improve patient care, and provide safe staffing levels and pay parity with public sector nurses and midwives.
Private hospitals across Victoria have a 41% share of patient hospitalisations and employ around 70,000 nurses and midwives, with two-thirds of elective surgery taking place in private hospitals. But the staff that work in private hospitals are not receiving comparable wages to their public sector colleagues and are expected to work at unsafe staffing levels.
Public hospitals in Victoria are legislated to operate at a nurse/midwife-to-patient ratio of 1:4 in general medical wards. Private health insurance holders might be shocked to learn that private hospitals are operating at a ratio of 1:8, with this higher workload increasing stress and the risk of burnout.
ANMF nurse and midwife members from every St Vincent’s Private hospital stood up on Thursday to be represented at the Stop Work despite their management attempting to discourage them from attending. Members are to be congratulated for their resolve in standing together to pursue an agreement outcome that includes quality and safety for patients through the introduction of minimum nurse/midwife to patient ratios.
In addition to taking protected industrial action, ANMF members are asking consumers to tell their private health insurer that it’s time to pay their fair share to private hospitals so that they can pay decent wages and provide safe staffing levels.
Read more: St Vincent’s Private Hospitals’ nurses and midwives EBA