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What was the impact of budget cuts for you today?
Leave a comment below and tell us how you are being affected by the Government’s cuts to frontline health care.
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May we pass on our dismay and disgust in the cuts that are happening in the Tasmanian health system. With a situation that we had to cope with whilst staying in Launceston last week end (we live in Devonport), it was impossible for my wife to be attended to in the emergency section at the LGH, due to a severe bleeding situation due to lack of medical staff. Thank god for the reception staff on duty for their help with this situation. Fortunately the bleeding stop after 5 and 1/2 hours. Why there are extensions etc going on there and the Mersey General Hospital is beyond belief when the cuts in nursing etc. happening, as there will not not be staff available to utilise these improvements. Pity so much money going into VFL football for the south, and the the phantom fox hunt, and not into the failing health system.
As the saying goes “the gates close at Oatlands, bugger the North of the State”.
We fully support the ANF Tasmania Branch, in their bid to safeguard the quality of patient care in the Tasmanian health system.
name supplied
I am a single mother of 3 young children, since seperating from my husband 5 years ago. SInce that time I have had sole responsibility for the children emotionally, physically and financially. I am one of the nurses on a fixed term contract who will be affected by these health budget cuts. I have been a loyal committed employee during my time of employment and expected my position to be ongoing. I have no idea what I am going to do if I lose my job, it is going to be very hard to gain employment elsewhere as a Nurse with every other nurse in the same position as I. I will be looking at leaving my career which I love and choosing another area of employment. All of these nurses leaving Tasmania for the mainland will not be back when / if things get better, they no longer trust the stability of the state. We are losing fantastic nurses every day to the mainland and as most of our nursing staff are an aging population, what is going to happen in 10 years when we no longer have our experienced senior staff. People with valuable experience such as this are essential to nursing wards, especially when skill mix may not be so good on certain shifts. While my situation is scary, I am more worried about the impact on the community. I am shocked that they are not jumping up and down in protest, and simply put it down to them not realising what this means to them. People may think if they are sick enough and present to hospital a bed will be found for them, this is simply not the case. They will be taking the actual beds off the wards, and storing them so we will not be able to provide the care the community requires. People who require admission will simply be sent home with family members only to care for them, something that is already happening at times due to extreme bed shortages at times. I really hope something is sorted soon and nobody loses their life before it occurs.
I was told I had to take annual leave between Xmas an new year or I would be redeployed. My work does not just stop because its Xmas.
I’m a general nurse currently working within mental health. In 30 years of nursing, in a wide variety of situations and several countries, I have never seen so many patients vicariously traumatized by a government who obviously has no health plan and is solely focused on cutting front line jobs. Lives of nurses, their families & patients are in a state of absolute confusion. The situation is untenable professionally and ethically, I cannot understand how managers whom call themselves nurses can action such destructive measures against colleagues and unsettle the lives of patience without having their registration revoked! They are causing harm to the psychological, physical and social aspects to those who care and are being cared for in the mental health services. There should also be consideration give to taking legal action by colleges for bullying and harassment in the work place causing psychological stress and physiological illnesses, It seems that my union is slow to take serious action as to put on notice employer, middle and senior managers that nurses and carers are considering legal action against them. Is it possible to have front line nurses to report to their unions all instances of bullying and harassment in the work place? I seriously believe that until we take up to our employers and managers they will think that they can treat nurses anyway they please! This union needs to toughen up and really start fighting for the health of Tasmanians everywhere vicariously this means fighting for all health positions including those work horses known as casual nurses!
Dear Lara, I do hope that when it is your turn to be admitted with chest pain, you will find me allocated to care for you. I will do it willingly, professionally and with a smile. The problem is that I may not have the support, or team to care for you. Unfortunately you will have to wait an extended period of time to get from your ambulance, and I am quite sure wait patiently in DEM, but without enough staff, I can’t imagine how things might up. Look actually the job uncertainty, has led me to think that Woolies might have greater job security, and at least I won’t get sued for stuffing up, through lack of resources to provide safe care, yours annon
The budget cuts mean that I will not have any employment after January 14th 2012. I am a gard nurse at the present on a short term contract that is not being renewed. I want to work but unfortunately I do do not count in this Government’s plans.
name supplied
I am a Registered Nurse and Midwife at the Royal Hobart Hospital. II am not alone in wondering how so much money can be spent on building a new facility when the jobs of nurses, doctors, allied health clinicians and ancillary staff are being felled daily. I also wonder how many lives will be lost due to the closure of beds and cutting of clinical services.
The current climate is deeply demoralising to all workers who have the threat of unemployment or severe underemployment hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles. Staff in the Roster Office have been under orders not to fill any staffing shortfalls until the day of the shift. Some units have been granted dispensation to this draconian rule. For others, however, there is minor chaos daily. The roster office opens at 0630, and nurses on the morning shift are being called between 0630 and 0700 to start work by 0800. This is the new policy even when the staffing gaps are identified the evening before. Needless to say, casual staff are very stressed waiting for calls and having to organise their lives around the uncertainty of working hours. It also causes unnecessary disruption on the wards, with charge nurses having to spend far more time and energy chasing the authorisation to replace staff and not knowing if they will have enough nurses to cover the needs of the unit. Casual and part time staff, who are integral to the overall nursing numbers on many wards, are only being given 6 hour shifts instead of 8. The consequence of this is that fulltime staff on 8 hour shifts are expected to cover times of inadequate nurse-patient ratios at the beginning and end of shift. This increases their stress and workload to the point that it is unsafe for patients, not to mention the cumulative effect on the health and wellbeing of staff. Handovers are rushed and incomplete, meaning critical clinical information is not imparted, which will inevitably lead to medication errors, miscommunication of test results and lack of clarity about patient care plans. All it takes is for one patient to have an acute episode, such as a haemorrhage or heart attack, during a period of understaffing, and patients will die unnecessarily. Any inquest would certainly find that lack of staffing would be implicit in the outcome.
I returned to Tasmania a year ago to help my family through an acute crisis when my mother was killed in a car accident, my sister was badly injured, and my elderly father very unable to cope with the loss. I left senior midwifery roles in education and research in Melbourne to return to Hobart, my family needed me. I was perfectly satisfied to return to “the trenches” on the wards, and to leave the hustle-bustle of big city life in favour of all the beauty of Tasmania and the simpler lifestyle. My family is the better for this move too. However, if I were 22, unattached, and finishing up a Transition to Nursing program at the Royal, I would be on the first plane to the mainland or overseas to seek more secure employment elsewhere. I know many nurses and doctors who are contemplating just such a move. If they leave en masse, the Royal may save money in the short term, but the skills shortage from the Brain Drain will be devastating to the Tasmanian health sector in the future.
We need more clinical staff, not job cuts. We certainly don’t need more bureaucrats. The Royal is the tertiary referral centre for the entire state. With closures in the North West and proposed bed closures at LGH, which other hospital is going to be able to receive patients? Will the State Government decide to send them to Melbourne by helicopter? Will people be made to wait for elective surgery until they are too frail to survive it? In my area, Women’s and Children’s Services, babies keep arriving and kids keep getting sick and having accidents. We are seeing increasingly complex situations of high risk social service and mental health requirements. Our referral paths are being slashed, too, which can only be detrimental to the health of our future.
I love Tasmania, and I care deeply about the importance of state funded healthcare being universally available. In all the years I have been nursing, I have never been short of work. To the contrary, I have always been accustomed to working extra shifts and overtime. I have always been happy to help my colleagues and give patients the best care that I can – both in terms of clinical expertise and being a kind and caring presence to patients and their families when they need it. However, I cannot survive financially on the dramatic cut in my working hours. Far worse than my personal economic circumstances, though, is the stripping of the respect afforded my profession by politicians and bureaucrats. I take pride in my work. I am good at what I do, I am experienced, I love working with patients, have cordial working relationships with my colleagues, and I have always enjoyed being part of something so important in people’s lives. In the space of a few months, I have gone from being viewed by the hospital as a valued member of the team to being an expense to be culled. I am now called last minute, placing additional pressure on my family. My permanent colleagues are stressed for the lack of hands on deck. My colleagues whose fixed term contracts are due to expire soon are considering their futures grimly. And still the patients keep coming, and we keep trying valiantly to attend to them as we have always done. We are all wondering where the severe new measures will stop. And many of us are wondering whether it is worthwhile staying in the Tasmanian public health sector at all when we are becoming so undervalued.
We need immediate action to prevent further degradation of our health sector. Otherwise, it seems almost inevitable that our brand new hospital will have no-one left to staff it.
I recieved in the mail today a letter from the Health Service and the office of the state service Comminssioner today what a waste of my time and engery it was to get all of that paper work together and go over it time after time and to make sure i had everything that was asked of me only to be told i dont meet the ciretia for this work i love and was caring enough to choose me for all of these years (30) plus. Yes thats right it looks like I wil loose my job to so do I Now throw my arms in the air and say thats alright I will go peacefully and take a very early retirment? My story is this I moved here three and half years ago from NSW and did not think a Health sytem could be anyworse then there. So we packed up the husband and my aging mother and moved to a beatuiful part of Australia and we thought this is it we home safe and everything around us, so now do I claim the careers pension for my aging mother that i have never claimed before and maybe i should claim a careers pension for my invilid husband from vetran affairs and get them back dated and just sit around and do nothing for the rest of my life, no I now there’s is no way i could ever do that but then again maybe i might have to really think about that part for a little while.
I would just like to say I really love my job otherwise i doubt very much wheather i could of begin doing this work, love and devotion for all these years any way enogh rambling on I would love to thank all the girls and guys at lgh for the support and welcoming they gave to me 15mths ago they will be treasured in my heart and mind forever come what may, a caring and and commited group of people i have been blessed to know and work with Tassie this will be your loss if people and I mean all Tasmanians dont stand up now you will be the losses here as this hospital gets torn apart and hopefully my Local members who have been siiting the the fence and whom we have not heard from, really its votes trust me WE WILL REMEMBER
name supplied
I am saddened by the widespread effect of the current cutbacks. I am a casual employee in the dhhs of 11 years – I have found this the easiest way to manage work with 3 children, as returning to the state 12 years ago no one would offer set days to enable me to organise childcare etc, another issue with a profession that works around the clock. Up until recently I have been filling a gap in the roster of 1-2 nights per week and filling in for sick leave where possible in between. As from mid december my services are no longer required as my hours are to be given to the permanent employees due to a reduction of hours in the roster (i.e. one less nurse per day). I am hoping that I will be able to continue as a casual, however the reality is the casual pool is becoming saturated with others who have lost their hours and positions and I wonder just how much work will be available with reduced beds, and January is a renowned time for being quiet with ward closures etc.
It seems a great shame that others, like myself with 20-odd years of experience will be potentially forced from the profession due to these cutbacks. Morale is low, I particularly feel for the graduates who are leaving university with great expectations and enthusiasm who are finding it increasingly hard to begin their careers as there is little option available. Many of these may choose, or are forced, to work interstate or change their career path before it has even began. Our patients numbers never reduce, only the bed numbers it seems and our ability to manage them with less and less resources is being truly tested. I love my job but I need to work somewhere and if it means that I need to find income elsewhere another nurse will be lost. I wonder in the future, in improved economic times whether we will be rewarded for the current situation we find ourselves in by having workable nurse to patient ratios to provide what we would determine good holistic care to the our patients. We seem to always make do under tough circumstances…our reward today is thanks, but there’s the door!
I fully support my collegues at LGH, making a public statement by refusing to do double shifts over a designated period of time. Few people realise the full extent of staff giving beyond their allocated hours.
We extend ourselves beyond a ’safe’ (8 hour) working day, in a pysically demanding job, whilst fatigued many mistakes do happen, and collegues have died, due to car accidents, following these work conditions.
In my workplace it becomes 8 + 10 hr night shft = 18 hours straight. I’d like to see a Medicare desk clerk, or local Librarian do that!
One must remember that in these situations that there is often not the opportunity to even stop for a meal break, due to an overwhelming demand by patients. I acknowledge that there is monetary re-embursement, it is not a fair transaction in my mind.
All this to prop up a system that is currently sacking nurses. It just doesn’t add up! People will come, sick and dying. Women in labour will still birth. Without the dedicated staff to prop up the system, Lara will surely have blood on her hands.
I am unable to take my annual leave as requested months ago due to lack of leave relief. I have to take it at another time causing considerable issues with holiday cancellations, financial costs,childcare, family etc. Meanwhile, when I do take the leave I have been given, the leave relief situation is still so dire, my rural area will not be properly covered for services and no other services exist to pick up these needs; patients and clients simply go without.
Thank you for your comment. ANF would advise you to seek compensation for any out of pocket expenses occurred as a result of the cancelation of your annual leave. Please contact the ANF Info line to discuss.
I was a Rn on Casual Pool. Came back to RHH after @ 11yrs away. The first few months were terifficplenty of work great morale education etc etc The RHH had finally got its act together. However this was shortlived .
Suddenly I couldnt ring and book shifts in advance,I had to ring on the day. RHH then rang me sometimes with an hours notice-all shifts having to be confirmed by NUM and hospital co-ordinators. Woirk dried up,there was increased stress amongst nurses especially those whose contracts had not been renewed. Ive left the RHH and managed to go private. I miss the RHH it is a great hospital with teriffic staff. Its such a shame they had it right for such a short while.
I am an RN at the RHH, I had permanency and decided 15 mths ago to leave for another position in the private sector, this was not durable and I returned back to my previous position after 6 weeks of vacancy on a contractual arrangement. I was under the 3 mths of returning back to the public service, so therefore all my entitlements were reinstated. I viewed this as being continual employment. I applied for permanency on sept 10th. To this date after many emails to HR and my manager going into bat for me, I still do not have any correspondence whatsoever. My husband was made redundant and I am sole income provider as well as supporting my 3 teenage children, we live rurally. I pledged my case as being a sole income provider and the urgency of knowing if I had employment, because no emails had been acknowldeged. All this uncertaintity has caused us to go into crisis mode in my husband looking for employment elsewhere besides the south and possibly looking at selling our property, moving up the NW Tas or even interstate. To date to be financially viable in the future and we do not have the bank take over our property and just in case I could not get work anywhere else and my husband not being successful in employment, we have sold our boat and 2 horses. I am currently trying to hang onto another 2 horses as this is my releasment and entertainment and these two are my like my children. My teenagers do not want to move away from the south, friends, Uni, family etc, we are now trying to accommodate and set them up in alternate living arrangements individually. It will cause our family to be eventually fragmented and separated. As far as I know my contract finishes up on 24th Dec, I have 3 shifts to go and none the wiser. It has been one of the most stressful times in our lives in not knowing and being avoided. Luckily I have been given some work at an aged care facility which I appreciate in the short term. I have never felt such like a ledger employee number in my 27 years of nursing, such disrespect has been shown by this organisation and an agency who is suppose to show empathy, concern and appreciation for its workers. I know change is good, but its not the change we wanted in our lives and its taken us down a path of despair at times. I am one of many who is experiencing anxiety in not knowing what the future holds. At the end of the day I have my health, my husband, my children, the rest is materialistic but I didnt deserve this, it was a lifestyle, a family together and now I dont know where or what the future holds. Shame on the labour/green government, you will never get my vote or any of my extended families vote ever again
name supplied
ANF would like to suggest you contact the Infoormation Office immediately on 6223 6777 or 1800 001 241 (outside Hobart area) to discuss your circumstance.
I am a grad nurse with my contract at LGH due to finish at the end of April 2012. My partner has also just graduated as a nurse and was hoping to also be employed by DHHS. What will we do? Oh well, we’ll probably sell up and move to the mainland with the hoards of other unemployed nurses that aren’t wanted by DHHS.
I work in ED. I’ve noticed a massive increase in pt’s, both for acute and mental health walking through the doors. People are getting sicker, bed block is getting worse (even with our best efforts) and the government’s response is to cut money from the health care budget and expect to still get the same for less.
Health care is not a business!! You can’t run it as such!! I feel most for the patients: it’s not their fault but they are the ones suffering with longer waiting times, stressed out staff (both nurses and doctors), longer bed access waiting times not to mention all the other little things.
I’m rapt that the pollies get private health insurance and heaven only knows what other perks. How about they donate some of that money or better yet, be a proper patient (ie one that doesn’t have private health or the red carpet rolled out when they walk through the door) and discover how 99% of pt’s really live…..
I also found out that DHHS had to be taken to the TIC so that we would get paid appropriately. Again, I’m happy that management get Christmas, all the public holidays and New Years Day holiday off, but not everyone is as lucky. I’m happy to work, but I don’t work for free. Maybe management need some sort of reminder that some of us care about our patients more than what management seems to understand what health care or rather, my career is about.
No I’m not a nurse, but I’ve been married to one for 35yrs. We moved to Tasmania 3yrs ago to escape the stupidity of the NSW government, maybe thats not the only reason (we fell in love with this state whilst visiting family) The point is this government is making the same mistakes as the labour gov of both Vic and NSW, quite frankly neither Lara or Michelle have a clue what they are doing.Federal funding of health through all it’s avenues including Medicare are done by basicly a butts in beds approach, cut beds cut staff you cut funding. There is no need to cut nursing staff or beds, like all government departments DHHS is top heavy, if any jobs should go this overload in none nursing,clinical, or produdtive areas like cleaners cooks etc. Having read your letters very one of you has my heart felt feeling of angre, not at you but at the way your being treated by a minister who was useless in federal politics and a Premier who quite frankly has never had a real job.
I met my partner at the beginning of our nursing degree in 2008. I graduated in 2010 and he has just graduated at the end of 2011. I was fortunate enough to receive a transition to placement position with the DHHS. My partner will not be so lucky. My contract expires at the end of April. We entered nursing with the expectation that there would always be nursing positions available. What a joke. How are the new grad’s supposed to get the required experience with very few acute care positions available.
Firstly I love that everyone has a place on here to anonymously let the public know what the real truth is in this situation. I recently graduated into not just a profession I thought would be able to provide me with job security but a profession that allowed me to care for people. I dedicated the last 3 years to University study and my family struggled and went without like every nurse today but I was willing to as I knew the rewards would pay off, we would be able to get married and save for a deposit on our home and finally say goodbye to income support payments and living week to week. What a shock it was to watch the government cover truths with white lies, during our final weeks of University study, to feel the pressure and stresses of uncertainty and be provided little information. So here I am in March unemployed, living week to week from income support under enormous financial pressure, medicated up to my eyeballs trying to think tomorrow will get better, trying to stay positive. I have never felt so betrayed from the “land of opportunities” and choosing a career that everyone would say “you will be fine they always need nurses”, obviously our government doesn’t feel the same, I would love to write more but I am on the hunt for a job and we need to keep our internet usage down, and to everyone that reads this and is facing the same uncertainty my thoughts are with you through this difficult time…
Sometime words fail me, but not today.
Today I write for my wife and for the countless voiceless at the mercy of a strangled health system.
For those reading, if you would like to forward this to somewhere that may inspire action from our government and opposition, then please do.
I write an open letter to the Premier, the minister for health and to the Greens leader for their part in the continuing debacle that is the Tasmanian health system.
Today, for the second time in as many months, my wife and I have witnessed first hand the result of inept governance, obvious lack of accounting and budgeting skills and the decline in morale foisted upon health care workers.
Booked in for level two surgery, and after waiting most of the day patiently for some sign of action, the apparent lack of staff, obviously overworked, but still managing to conduct themselves in a thorough and professional manner, advised us that there would be no surgery for Angela today.
Perhaps it will be third time lucky?
Angela’s procedure is straightforward enough and should involve just an overnight stay all things equal, but left unchecked it can become a problem and would require weeks off work.
This is the time bomb she carries.
For her to miss work would eat into her rarely used sick leave, but also causes a flurry of rescheduling workers at her employ and this has to be all undone and rearranged now she won’t be on sick leave next week.
What a shemozzle!
Here we have a government (and not to be left out, the self proclaimed genius opposition) who are on an endless cycle of job promotion as a lock step mantra that spews forth across the varied media on an almost daily basis.
Being self employed, I’ve had to cancel some work and reschedule other clients not once but twice now and the novelty has worn off with still no result for Angela in sight.
Aside from the cost to us, imagine the waste of resources from the hospital’s perspective as Angela goes through every process except the operation itself.
From a business perspective, if I was to run a show like this, I would have been out the back door a long time ago.
On what basis can the government and the minister justify their jobs?
Why is this ineptitude, lack of foresight and deep-seated managerial malaise allowed to continue and indeed, it appears rewarded with continued tenure?
Sincerely null and void,
name supplied
I am employed in one of the nursing pools as a casual EN and in the past 4 weeks have only been rung on four occasions. How are we meant to survive and I am only one nurse affected by the budget cuts. Our futures look very uncertain.
The stories that our nurses are writing in here need to be submitted to the Local media to get the personal stories into the everyday lives of voters; I feel this would cause a ground swell and get everyone politicly motivated.
On a personal level my mother who is 76 years old lost her driver’s licence in September last year as she is still on the waiting list for a knee replacement at the RHH. She lives in the Huon Valley and has subsequently suffered enormously as a result from not being able to drive her own car. Most of the time when she tries to book community transport she’s told that none is available due to demand. She was assessed as category 2 on the waiting list which means that she should have had the operation within 3 months but she was advised by RHH staff that it will take between 3 to 10 years for her to have the operation due to the budget cuts. She now has stomach problems which I think is due to the stress she is experiencing due to her severely reduced mobility. So now she’s on a second waiting list at RHH for a gastroscopy. Why should patients like my mother suffer when for example in her case she spent nearly 40 years of her live dedicated to improving the lives of the children of Tasmania as a school teacher. On a professional level as a social worker at the Royal Hobart Hospital I’ve seen firsthand the negative consequences of the current health cuts on my work colleagues and patients. We need to make the politicians listen to the ordinary people of Tasmania who are suffering too much because of their decisions about the public health system and make health a high priority in the next State Budget.
My husband who is a nurse has had to leave myself and his 4 year old son to relocate to South Australia in order to practice acute nursing. I am just about to finish my Bachelor of Nursing and I too will be moving to South Australia to pursue my career. Neither of us can believe the abhorrent state this health system is in!
I am a second year fast track student about to start my final placement before finishing uni.
I have a husband who works full time and four children ranging from ages 4 years to 18 years, all at varying stages of their education. Had it been easy enough for us to relocate I would have applied for grad positions on the mainland. But, given my family situation, relocation is not really an option.
I have had decent grades all the way through uni and have applied for every grad position I can in the south of the state. I’ve had three rejections and I am currently waiting, and hoping, that I get a second round offer somewhere otherwise I don’t know what I’m going to do.
University is hard enough as it is but doing the fast track is even harder. I’ve really enjoyed my time at uni. But, at this stage, you begin to wonder, was there even any point?