The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch has condemned today’s health funding in the State budget as a short sighted and ill thought out band aid solution to a critical situation.

Branch Secretary, Neroli Ellis, says that the State Government’s budget sounds like it offers a lot but delivers little, and the positive impacts on health are negligible.

”This budget doesn’t offer the opportunity for beds to reopen, waiting lists to be reduced or improved medical care for the Tasmanian community”, said Mrs Ellis.

Premier Lara Giddings has announced that the Department of Health and Human Services has been exempted from the need to find further health savings, delivering a budget savings relief of $120m over four years.

The Premier is selling this budget as one that will relieve the pressure on frontline services. The Minister for Health has also stated that ‘increasing the savings requirement would have unduly affected our critical health services, something this Government is not prepared to do’.

Mrs Ellis challenges this statement, suggesting that frontline health services will continue to be pressured by the significant budget cuts that have already taken place.

“The 2012/13 budget will do little to relieve current pressures on staff, services and access for the Tasmanian public due to the fact that funding for our health system is still grossly inadequate compared to what is required to meet the needs and current demands of Tasmania,” said Mrs Ellis.

“The Minister for Health reports that savings achieved in the health budget to date have been made by restructuring rosters, reducing agency staff and not filling leave. The savings to date have included many one off savings which are not recurrent so to continue to find $100 m savings annually and more as projected for forward years, will further affect and compromise frontline services and safe patient care.”

The ANF will continue to fight to protect frontline health, and strive for a return of high level patient care for all Tasmanians.

Media enquiries: Neroli Ellis, 0408 037 589

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Federal Executive has condemned the inequity of healthcare available to Tasmanians compared to the rest of Australia.

ANF Tasmanian Branch Secretary Neroli Ellis said she welcomed the support of the ANF Federal Executive, particularly in light of the threat to further budget cuts despite the reduction in services already having a major impact on people’s access to the Tasmanian public health sector.

“The ANF Federal Executive has rightly called on the Federal Government to take immediate steps to ensure Tasmanians receive equitable access to the healthcare that is available to all other Australians,” Mrs Ellis said.

“This is further recognition from the Federal and other State ANF Secretaries that the Tasmanian public health sector is not equitably accessible and the budget cuts have severely impacted on the rights of Tasmanians to access a safe health system.  

“This national support is encouraging news for Tasmanians who are currently suffering denied access to healthcare, particularly those waiting for elective surgery requiring admission to beds.

“I am heartened to see the rest of Australia condemning the inequitable conditions that Tasmanians seeking health care are enduring.

“As well as providing some small comfort and hope to those awaiting treatment, I hope this announcement offers a timely morale boost for ANF members here in Tasmania.”

The ANF Federal Executive has also requested the ANF Federal Secretary to formally advise the Federal Health Minister of their “extreme concerns of the reduced rights to quality timely accessible universal public health services for Tasmanians”.

Media enquiries: Neroli Ellis, 0408 037 589

Lee Thomas, ANF Federal Secretary 0419576590

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch today congratulates the Gillard Government for injecting $1.2 billion over five years for Australia’s under-resourced aged care workforce as a centrepiece of its landmark overhaul of the aged care sector.

ANF Branch Secretary Neroli Ellis says this reform package is a victory for hard working nurses and care staff across the country.

Mrs Ellis said “Thousands of nurses and care workers will be relieved that the extra funding will go toward higher wages, improved career structures, better training, education and workforce planning.”

“This is the largest investment in Australia’s aged care workforce and is a significant victory for the sector’s underpaid nursing and care staff,” she said.

“Australia’s growing aged population will now receive the support they deserve to enable them to remain in their own homes for as long as possible and continue to receive quality care in aged care facilities.”

The ANF is confident this extra funding will now assist in closing the wages gap for aged care workers and should result in attracting and retaining staff in the aged care sector. Our Tasmanian nurses and care workers in aged care are dedicated, hardworking and most deserving of this increased funding.

For the past three years, the ANF’s Because We Care campaign has focused on the delivery of quality care for older Australians, through better wages, staffing levels and skills mix. These announcements are a victory for the hard work of ANF’s members.

Tasmania’s two leading health organisations are joining forces to unite with the community in the fight against the State Government’s health budget cuts.

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Tasmania are collaborating to help save Tasmania’s health by holding community health forums across the State.

“On a daily basis I am hearing heartbreaking stories from Tasmanians, both nurses and patients, who have lost faith in our health system, and it needs to stop,” said Neroli Ellis, ANF Branch Secretary.

“We are holding statewide community health forums to enable the community to be involved in honest and open discussions about the crisis in our health system,” said Mrs Ellis.

“Doctors and nurses want to take this opportunity to inform the public about the serious effects on patient care due to the budget cuts. We urge the community to be more active and contact their politicians to ensure the new budget handed down in May will protect health services next year.”

MEDIA DOORSTOP

Neroli Ellis, ANF Tasmanian Branch Secretary and John Davis, AMA Tasmania President call for the community to help stop the Health budget cuts.

Where: ANF Office, 182 Macquarie Street, Hobart

When: 1230 hours, Tuesday 17 April 2012

COMMUNITY HEALTH FORUMS

All members of the media are welcome to attend the community health forums and hear from a panel of Tasmanian doctors and nurses speaking about the real effects of the budget cuts.

HOBART 6:30pm – 8:00pm Wednesday 18 April, Hobart Town Hall, 50 Macquarie St Hobart

LAUNCESTON 6:30pm – 8:00pm Thursday 19 April, The Tramsheds, 4 Invermay Rd Inveresk

DEVONPORT 6:30pm – 8:00pm Monday 23 April, DECC, 145-151 Rooke St Devonport

Media Enquiries:

Neroli Ellis, ANF 0408 037 589

Dr John Davis, AMA 0488 142 033

The Australian Nursing Federation State Secretary Neroli Ellis, has expressed concern that the Gillard Government is failing to listen to growing calls for urgent reform to address the crisis in Australia’s under-resourced aged care sector.

“The entire industry has been involved in discussions for the past seven months following the release of the Productivity Commission (PC) report into aged care and now is the time for action”, said Mrs Ellis.

“The time for talk is over; no more debate is needed. The Government must deliver reforms to aged care. The Prime Minister herself committed to reforming aged care in the Government’s second term, but we are still waiting.”

“Aged care nurses and extended care assistants in Tasmania are overworked and undervalued and this is dramatically affecting the ability of providers to attract and retain staff in the sector. Coupled with appallingly low wages and no minimum mandated staffing levels, this is a recipe for disaster”, Mrs Ellis said.

Mrs Ellis said aged care stakeholders have co-operated in an unprecedented way to recommend meaningful reform of the aged care sector, but we are still waiting for the Government to respond.

The ANF is a member of the Age Well campaign (www.agewellcampaign.com.au) in which 28 major national consumer, union, provider and professional organisations have joined together to present a united blueprint for comprehensive aged care reform.

“We’ve engaged with the Minister for Ageing Mark Butler and heard him talk about reform. Industry, providers, consumer groups and unions are all committed to Federal Budget 2012 being the Aged Care Budget, the time to act is now”, said Mrs Ellis.

“The Government must start delivering on aged care we can’t afford to wait any longer.”

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) has decided to increase the 2012 registration fee for nurses and midwives by $45.00, from $115.00 to $160.00. That is an increase of almost 40%!

Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch Secretary, Neroli Ellis says ANF has been opposed to this fee increase and has lobbied against it on members’ behalf.

“ANF is very disappointed with this unjustified increase and had recently met with the Tasmanian Health Minister Michelle O’Byrne seeking support to not agree to this. It now appears that the Tasmanian Minister has supported this increase in registration fees at a time when Tasmanian nurses face job insecurity and lack of employment”.

“This will have significant workforce implications as many nurses and midwives who cannot find work currently may decide this is the last straw and let their registration lapse.”

“ANF believes that any increase should not exceed the growth in Consumer Price Index (CPI) or wages growth”, said Mrs Ellis.

“We support self-regulation and continue to oppose any cross subsidisation between professions; but we do not believe this increase is justifiable.”

“One of the purported benefits of moving to National Registration was the increased efficiencies and economies of scale that could be achieved by a national model. ANF has seen no evidence of such economies or efficiencies being implemented by the NMBA or their secretariat, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).”

In addition, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) receives direct payment from training organisations who are seeking accreditation for nursing and midwifery programs of study. The cost implications of accreditation and monitoring should be factored into that payment to ANMAC.

Tasmanian nurses and midwives are understandably outraged that National Registration costs are higher than the previous system.

Media enquiries: Neroli Ellis, 0408 037 589

There must be something special about the North West of Tasmania that is encouraging the State’s best nursing students to work there.

For the fourth year in a row the recipient of the Australian Nursing Federation (Tasmania Branch) prize for the UTAS Most Outstanding Graduand Award has received a Graduate Placement in the North West, with Smithton Hospital nurse Charlotte Lory being named Tasmania’s top nursing graduate for 2011. Charlotte completed a Bachelor of Nursing degree at the University of Tasmania’s Launceston campus last year

The Outstanding Graduand award is given to the UTAS Bachelor of Nursing student who receives the highest overall marks during their degree.  This includes performance during clinical placements.

For her efforts, Ms Lory received a certificate and a cheque for $500 from the Australian Nursing Federation.

“ANF is proud to support nursing students in Tasmania with the UTAS Awards,” said Tasmanian Branch Secretary Neroli Ellis.

“In the current climate of budget cuts and slashes to services, it is inspiring to see the commitment from our students and graduates – particularly those working in rural areas such as the North West.”

An afternoon tea will be held on Monday 19 March at 2.00pm at the Smithton Hospital where ANF representative Sue Robertson will present Charlotte with her certificate and prize.

Top Student Award Presentation

• What:            Presentation of Outstanding Nursing Graduand Award
• Where:          Nurses’ Office, Smithton Hospital
• When:           Monday 19 March, 2.00pm

Media enquiries: Sue Robertson, 0400 621 288

Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch Secretary Mrs Neroli Ellis will be appearing at the Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work in Australia today to present an ANF submission about the effects of insecure work on Tasmanian nurses.

“The lives of nurses, and their families, are being significantly impacted by insecure working arrangements. For the first time nurses as a professional group face uncertainty in relation to the capacity to find secure ongoing employment in Tasmania,” said Mrs Ellis.

“Nursing work is now largely characterised by informal, short term contracts and other forms of insecure employment. Contracts are not being renewed, despite individuals being delegated ongoing rostered work. Casual employees are being rostered work up to four weeks in advance, and fixed term employees are working for up to three years without an opportunity to convert their respective employment status to permanent. Concurrently with the impetus to remove nurses, the remaining nurses are now required to work double shifts on a daily basis.”

“Nurses who once had permanent, secure employment are now struggling to make ends meet. There has been a significant change in the employment opportunities for newly graduated nurses. Many nurses resident in Tasmania now travel interstate in order to secure employment while their families remain in Tasmania.” 

“Despite a predicted national nursing shortage due to the ageing workforce and growing health care demands, Tasmania is doing everything possible to turn nurses away. This will have serious ramifications within the next five years as the bulk of our profession will retire. The current rate of loss will make it hard to rebuild capacity especially in the specialty areas of Theatre, Intensive Care and Mental health.”

Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work

HOBART               Public Hearing

When:                  ANF appearing at 1100-1200

Where:                 The Old Woolstore, Macarthur Room, 1 Macquarie Street, Hobart 

 Media enquiries: Neroli Ellis, 0408 037 589

The State Government’s mismanagement of the Tasmanian health budget has forced the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch to pursue this issue with the Federal Minister.

ANF Tasmanian Branch Secretary Mrs Neroli Ellis has met with Federal Minister for Health Tanya Plibersek MP to outline the dire situation of the Tasmanian public health system. ANF reiterated the need for the Federal Government to take over the Tasmanian public health system.

“The Federal Minister confirmed that the Federal Government will not take over the Tasmanian health system and expressed her concern with the deterioration of access to health services due to budget cuts.”

Minister Plibersek also indicated Tasmania was at risk of losing further Federal funding.

Mrs Ellis said, “The Tasmanian health system is going from bad to worse and needs urgent intervention to stem the crisis. The frontline health services have been crippled with unacceptable delays or cancellation of services happening on a daily basis.”

“It is soul destroying for all those working to provide safe patient care, while they lose colleagues from their teams.”

ANF will provide regular briefings to the Federal Minister, who has reported a close interest in monitoring Tasmania’s health system.

Tasmanian nurses believe that the Tasmanian Government’s failure to meet their targeted Health budget savings by 30 June 2012 is no surprise.

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch Secretary Mrs Neroli Ellis said, “To slash $100m from an essential service with no lead time or consultation on priorities, was always an impossible task and would have compromised safe patient care. The direction showed a lack of understanding of health requirements and a completely unrealistic expectation from Treasury.”

“With Tasmania sitting only above the ACT in elective surgery waiting times prior to the closure of over 100 acute hospital beds and five theatre suites, Tasmanians will not be able to expect any relief with this budget deficit carried forward to next financial year,” said Mrs Ellis.

“Nurses are fearful that any further cuts to the health frontline services will result in unacceptable risks to safe patient care.”

“Health will not be able to tolerate a further $57m cut next financial year. It is impossible, and nurses are already choosing to leave the State as they refuse to be compromised in their duty of care to patients and clients due to the unsafe environment being forced upon them.”

ANF is meeting with the Minister in two weeks to further discuss the sustainability of a safe health system.

Media enquiries: Neroli Ellis, 0408 037 589

Nurses across Tasmania will this afternoon end their 48 hour ban on overtime and double shifts, which is in response to the Government’s budget cuts to Health.

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch Secretary Mrs Neroli Ellis said, “The 48 hour ban on overtime highlighted that with proper planning, which included the employment of additional nurses and support staff during this period, overtime was reduced. This clearly demonstrates we need more nurses not less to cope with the current demand.”

“Despite the ban, nurses working in some specialty areas (paediatrics and neonatal /paediatric intensive care) still worked overtime/double shifts, as patients would have been put at risk and potentially would have had to be flown to Melbourne.”

ANF calls on the DHHS to review their decision to not continue employment of hundreds of nurses once their contracts end.

“Additionally, ANF has requested the DHHS fix their Human Resource Management which has left vacancies and employment on fixed term contracts, in areas where overtime is worked to cover the roster shortages. This poor management is costing money, but more importantly is affecting patient care and is not sustainable for nurses.”

Neroli Ellis said, “Nurses goodwill to work additional hours is what is holding our health system together. It is not in the best interest for patients, nurses or the bottom line to continue expecting nurses to work overtime when we have nurses now going to Centrelink to pay the rent.”

“Nurses won’t walk away from a patient in need. And it is with the best interests of the community in mind that we have decided to lift our ongoing ban against nurses undertaking non-nursing duties and overtime,” said Mrs Ellis.

Media enquiries – Neroli Ellis, 0408 037 589

Nurses across Tasmania will escalate their campaign to protect frontline health with a stop work meeting and the consideration of further industrial action. 

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch says members are frustrated and angry at the Tasmanian State Government’s actions to slash hospital beds and not continue the employment of up to 900 nurses. 

Branch Secretary Neroli Ellis said, “Nurses are still working double shifts and overtime to cope with the hospitals running near 100% occupancy, whilst the DHHS now terminates nurses on fixed term contracts. This is not a cost saving and despite the risks identified by nurses, the Government is unwavering in its short-sighted attempt to cut costs, which is now putting patient care at risk. 

“We understand the seriousness of stop work action, but this Government has pushed us to the point where we have no other option.” 

Nurses will maintain their duty of care to patients, and wards will be staffed safely during the stop work action. Attendance at the stop work rally is in unpaid time. 

“The ANF has also written to the Premier to seek an assurance from the Government that nurses will be granted full indemnity in the event of an adverse outcome that may occur as a result of these budget cuts,” said Mrs Ellis. 

“The Government must be held accountable for the decisions they are enforcing and the public needs to be assured they will receive the service they require”. 

Launceston General Hospital 

 1430 – 1530 hours Thursday 8 December Front Entrance 

North West Regional Hospital 

1430 – 1530 hours Friday 9 December Main Entrance Burnie Campus 

Royal Hobart Hospital 

1430 – 1530 hours Monday 12 December Liverpool Street Main Entrance 

Tasmanian nurses and Neroli Ellis (ANF Branch Secretary) will be available for interviews.Media enquiries: Neroli Ellis, 0408 037 589

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Tasmanian Branch is encouraging health care workers in Tasmania to Go Red to Save a Bed on Wednesday 7 December.

Branch Secretary Neroli Ellis believes the State’s hospitals and community health sites will be a sea of red in support of protecting Tasmania’s health system against the Government’s brutal budget cuts.

“No nurse or health care worker wants to see people unable to receive the health treatment they need and deserve,” said Branch Secretary Neroli Ellis.

“Community support against the Government’s budget cuts to health is growing, as they are just as passionate about ensuring their loved ones receive the care they need in times of illness.”

Nurses will be supported in their fight to protect frontline health by a champion of nursing, ACTU Federal President Ged Kearney, who is also the former Federal Secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation.

What: Neroli Ellis, ANF Tas Branch Secretary and Ged Kearney, ACTU Federal President speak in support of go Red to Save a Bed

Where: RHH Liverpool Street front entrance

When: 1230 hours, Wednesday 7 December 2011

Media enquiries: Neroli Ellis, 0408 037 589

Please direct media enquiries to Neroli Ellis, Branch Secretary on 0408 037 589.

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