Dr Paula Sanchez, who is running for Socialist Alliance in the NSW Senate, called on the public to back the nurses’ strike on February 15.
“Nurses and midwives have been the backbone of caring for the sick and dying during this pandemic, and they are burnt out,” Sanchez, a lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the Western Sydney University, told Green Left.
NSW Nurse and Midwives branches have overwhelmingly endorsed the strike which is demanding safe nurse-to-patient ratios; a fair pay rise above 2.5% and a COVID-19 allowance; and to withdraw an amendment to the Workers’ Compensation Act that would force workers to prove they contracted COVID-19 at work.
“The system is in crisis, because the government has not allocated the funds to ensure it works well. For years, nurses have been demanding the NSW government increase staffing to address chronic problems. They had to work through the pandemic with these chronic problems and now they are saying ‘enough is enough’.
“Nurses are the health professionals the government needs to listen to. We cannot support a profits-before-lives approach – which is Dominic Perrottet’s mantra.”
Sanchez has more than 20 years of clinical nursing, 17 years of teaching and 10 years of research work. Her doctorate work relates to making oral health accessible to people with heart disease. She strongly believes in universal health care and that a good quality public health system must be accessible to all.
[Find out more about the Socialist Alliance here.]