NSW: Nurses threaten to close beds at Wollongong Hospital

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-1998
NSW: Nurses threaten to close beds at Wollongong Hospital

SYDNEY, Dec 11 AAP - Nurses would close beds at Wollongong Hospital if management proceeded
with plans to cut staff, a New South Wales nursing union said today.

NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA) general secretary Sandra Moait said the Wollongong Hospital
branch of the union met to discuss a report by John Bisset which recommends nursing staff be
slashed by more than 10 per cent.

The Wollongong Hospital Efficiency Review recommends 160 fulltime-equivalent (FTE) staff
positions be cut, including more than 60 nursing positions, she said.

"The NSWNA completely rejects any push to reduce staff numbers and will continue to
negotiate with the Illawarra Area Health Service over the issue," Ms Moait said in a
statement.

"However, if nursing staff numbers are cut, our Wollongong branch believes the only way to
ensure safe nursing practice is to reduce bed numbers in line with staff cuts."

Union spokesman John Moran told AAP the nurses would remove beds from wards, fold them up,
and refuse to admit any patients to them if staff levels were reduced.

"If they cut the staff to the level theyre considering, then theyll also be cutting beds,
which means services will be cut," he said.

"Our members would make an assessment, if staffing was cut, of what impact that had on
those nurse-to-patient ratios and how many beds we thought we had enough nurses to safely
nurse."

He said the nurses had also voted to suspend elective surgery if existing nursing vacancies
at the hospital were not filled.

Union spokeswoman Kathryn Sullivan said hospital management had agreed not to implement the
Bisset report, but had indicated it still believed the hospital was overstaffed and would
commission other reviews using similar benchmarks.

She said the Bisset report took as its benchmarks at least two hospitals from Victoria and
one from Brisbane where she said staff levels had been cut to unacceptable levels.

AAP rat/wjf/bjm

KEYWORD: NURSES (CARRIED EARLIER)

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