Nurses fight to save St Vincent's

By Karen Fletcher and Chris Spindler SYDNEY — Around 400 nurses and patients gathered outside St Vincent's public hospital in Darlinghurst on November 1 to protest against the loss of at least 70 beds and several vital services as a result of insufficient state funding. Nurses from Concord, St George, St Vincent's Private and Prince Alfred Hospitals also joined the rally to protest against the impact of ongoing health spending cuts on nurses' jobs and conditions. The action was also supported by the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association. The protest took place during a four-hour stop work organised by the St Vincent's public hospital branch of the NSW Nurses Association. Branch president and rally organiser Annemarie Kaan said that the hospital board had decided to make the cuts when it became clear that the $120 million annual funding guaranteed for five years under an agreement between the hospital and the previous Liberal government is insufficient to provide the services currently available at the hospital. The real operating costs of the hospital are closer to $135 million per year, she said, and even then staff and patients are suffering due to under-staffing and inadequate resources following "seven years of successive budget cuts". The hospital's chief executive officer, Dr Ron Spencer, told the Sydney Morning Herald that he sympathised with the nurses, 300 of whom stand to lose their jobs as a result of the cuts, but that the losses were inevitable. "Governments everywhere are moving health care facilities from the traditional inner city centres to the population growth centres", he said. President of the AIDS Council of NSW, Bruce Marr, thanked the St Vincent's nurses for the care they have given HIV/AIDS patients. He spoke of the likely impact of the cuts on people living with HIV and AIDS in the Darlinghurst area, particularly on those unable to afford private outpatient services. NSW Nurses Association president, Sandra Moait, said the current ALP health minister, Andrew Refshauge, was dodging the St Vincent's issue by saying that the cuts were a matter for the hospital board, and pointing to the memorandum of agreement with the previous Liberal government. The rally called upon the board to pressure the government to provide the funds necessary to continue to run the hospital.

From GLW issue 210