Victorian nurses take action
By Kim Linden
MELBOURNE — Nurses at the Royal Melbourne Hospital voted on August 5 to begin an industrial campaign to force the Kennett government to fund adequate staffing levels and patient care.
On August 6, the hospital closed eight of 10 operating theatres as nurses refused to assist in non-emergency elective surgery.
Talks between the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) and hospital management broke down on August 7 and the dispute was extended. Nurses are to close one in five beds. Only two operating theatres are being staffed for emergency cases.
Nurses are demanding 12 extra nursing positions in theatre, restoration of charge nurses in the surgical recovery room, the immediate filling of 50 vacant positions and the reinstatement of 10 nurse educator positions.
The recent contracting of cleaning services at Royal Melbourne has resulted in the reduction of cleaning staff by 40%.
The Age reported a leaked memo from a vascular surgeon at the hospital which revealed that vascular patients have to wait unreasonable lengths of time for operations, leading to increased probability of amputations.
The Kennett government has attacked the ANF saying the government gave hospitals a funding boost in the last budget. However, no additional positions have been created and more redundancies have taken place.