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Autumn 2002

Bogged Down

Frustration levels amongst HACSU public sector nurse representatives are increasing as the crucial committee processes on sorting out patient acuity, staffing and skill mix appear to be getting deliberately bogged down by the State Government.

The committees were set up as a result of the last public sector nurse enterprise agreement, and are central to resolving road-blocks to the nurse recruitment and retention crisis.

HACSU Nurse Convener, Leanne McDougall, says bureaucratic delaying tactics will only exacerbate a very serious problem and result in more nurses walking away from the system. "The situation has got to a pretty silly stage," Leanne said. "In addition to these committees, there is also a process whereby the State Government is trying to develop a strategic plan for Community Nursing. The Government is now saying that the committees should not be covering areas that are the realm of the strategic plan. A strategic plan of course must cover the areas of acuity, staffing and skill mix, so they can veto the committees from looking at anything they don't like."

"So we are going back and forward talking about areas that the Government then come back to us on and say that it's not in the committee's term of reference. On top of this, the committees have now sifted through a lot of material across a range of areas and have recommended some trials. But the Government has said any trial must be cost neutral. How can you have a trial that doesn't cost anything? The point is that you do trials of things that may be saving a lot more money in the future. I think at this stage the Government's strategy is clear. They are about stymieing the process."

"We will not be played for fools. We entered into this process in good faith and will withdraw if the Government does not get serious about these reviews. In the last enterprise agreement nurses took a number of steps forward. But these reviews are very important and integral to the EBA process. Every nurse knows how important staffing issues are." Leanne said.

"The Government will lose support from public sector nurses if it is not genuine about it, and health services will suffer. We will be pointing this out very clearly."

HACSU is also concerned that delegates to the committees have on a number of occasions been unable to attend meetings because they could not get time off due to workload or lack of backfill. HACSU has written to
Human Resources Director, Paul Targett, and received a largely non-committal, obfuscating reply.

Leanne McDougall said some managers had been very supportive of the process but needed better direction and leadership from central HR.
At the last Steering Committeee meeting held on 26 March a Nursing Hours Per Patient Day Model (NHPPD) proposal was presented to the committee for consideration.

This proposal is based on a NHPPD model, which has been recently implemented in Western Australia. NHPPD places the onus upon the employer to ensure nurses do not have a sustained unreasonable workload and that nurses are rostered in accordance with a process consistent with reasonable work load principles.

We are awaiting the DHHS response to the proposal before the next Steering Committee meeting scheduled for 23 April 2002. HACSU will be conducting regional meetings to report back to nurses on the EBA process.