00:02Welcome everybody to the electorate of Miranda and here we are at Sutherland Shire Hospital
00:07which we know is the leading heart of health care in the Shire.
00:10About four generations of my family have lived in this area.
00:14We know the importance of this place and we're very proud to be part of a team that's backing in
00:19health workers
00:20not only in the Shire but right across New South Wales to make sure that all the locals in these
00:24areas
00:25get the health care that they need when they need it.
00:28It's great to be joined here today by the Premier Chris Minns, the Minister for Health Ryan Park,
00:34the Shire's very own Mary Ann Stewart member for Heathcote and members of the Nurses and Midwives Association.
00:41I'm going to hand over to Ryan Park who's going to tell us how this Minns State Government
00:45is really strengthening health care in the Shire and across New South Wales.
00:52Thank you everyone.
00:53Today we announce the next rollout of ratios across New South Wales public hospitals.
00:59That will see one to four on our general wards during the day, one to seven overnight.
01:05It will see an additional 950 nurses enrolled, employed across New South Wales public hospitals over the next few months.
01:15It's here at Sutherland, it will see an additional 20 nurses come off the back of what we've already rolled
01:21out
01:21in additional staff with the rollout of ratios across our emergency departments.
01:26These reforms are important for three reasons.
01:30Faster patient care, safer patient care and more support for our staff.
01:36This is something that the Nurses and Midwives Association have advocated for for close to two decades
01:41and I want to thank Michael and his team and all of the delegates and members for their long term
01:48advocacy in relation to this reform.
01:51Premier Minns has made it very clear that we need to do more when it comes to health care.
01:56The status quo is not good enough and that's why this is the largest reform in the way in which
02:02our health care rollout
02:04and our health care operations and our hospitals are staffed in New South Wales.
02:09Never before have we seen a reform of this size and scale undertaken as we move to permanent ratios across
02:18public hospitals in New South Wales.
02:20Over 70 hospitals in New South Wales will benefit from this reform all about delivering faster, safer patient care
02:28as well as making sure that our staff feel supported on every shift.
02:34Thanks Ryan, it's great to be here with you, my colleagues as well as the leadership of the Nurses and
02:40Midwives Association, particularly Michael.
02:43And it's great to be at South Wales Hospital.
02:45Busy, big public hospitals servicing a shire and parts of my electoral in Codra as well, particularly when St George
02:53Hospital is overcrowded.
02:54This is an important announcement for public health in our state and it means the recruitment of an additional 950
03:02nurses in our public hospitals.
03:04So that we can get to one to four on the general wards. Start that again.
03:09So we can get to one nurse for four patients on the general wards and one nurse to seven patients
03:14overnight.
03:16Ryan's 100% right. Nurses and their union have been calling for this change for many, many years.
03:23Ever since I got involved in public life. And yes, it's about patient safety.
03:28Yes, it's about easing the workload of our already busy public health workforce, particularly the nursing profession.
03:37But we also see this as an investment in the nursing profession that will see experienced nurses staying in their
03:44jobs for longer.
03:45But if it gets harder and harder on those wards to deal with complicated diagnoses and overcrowded wards with less
03:56co-workers,
03:58then you're more likely to take a job in a shared, the private health workforce or, worst of all for
04:03us, other jurisdictions and other states.
04:07Now, we believe we've got the track record that would indicate to the public that we can make this recruitment
04:13work.
04:15It's going to be a challenge to recruit that many people in an already tight labour market with a constrained
04:21workforce for a highly educated, highly skilled job.
04:25But Ryan and his team in cooperation with the nurses union over the last three and a half years have
04:33been able to get our retention numbers to where they were prior to the COVID emergency.
04:38And we've also been able to recruit 8,000 nurses for our public hospitals across general and emergency departments as
04:45well as midwives.
04:46It's been a massive undertaking and it could really have only happened with two things.
04:51Firstly, removal of the wages cap so that we can have bargaining in the commission.
04:57And secondly, a commitment to reasonable workplace staffing levels.
05:03This is just reasonable.
05:04It's not fair to say to a recently graduated 24 year old nurse that you have to deal with a
05:10busy public hospital ward with just two other people and sometimes just one other person.
05:16The responsibility on that person's shoulders is immense.
05:20It's too much.
05:21And this we believe will make a big difference.
05:23And hopefully for our hard working nurse fraternity, it tells them that help is on the way and that their
05:31work,
05:31their dedicated hard work on behalf of the people of New South Wales is absolutely appreciated.
05:37We need them.
05:39I'm going to keep, sorry, I'm going to keep going.
05:41Michael, do you want to jump in?
05:44So, Michael Waits, I'm the General Secretary of the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association.
05:49We are genuinely excited about today's announcement.
05:52Today's announcement is a culmination of over 20 years of campaigning from this union
05:57to make sure that nurses and midwives across this state have a reasonable workload,
06:02but more importantly, that the people of this state get quality care when they come into a public hospital.
06:08Nurse to patient ratios is evidence based to deliver just that.
06:12Today we see the announcement of the rollout for one to four in our medical, surgical and palliative care wards
06:20across the state.
06:21And that's an important point to make.
06:23This is not just an announcement that sees growth in the metro area.
06:27This will go across our state, big metro hospitals and district hospitals across the state.
06:35It doesn't matter where you live, you are going to get quality nursing care when you're a medical or surgical
06:40patient
06:40or you're getting palliative care because of this requirement.
06:43There is more work to do.
06:45We will continue to hold every government accountable for delivering ratios in every specialty area.
06:52We're pleased that Labor has committed to rolling out ratios in our ICUs and our MPSs,
06:59and that's the work that still lies ahead of us.
07:01But today is an important big step in making sure that our members get a better workload
07:08and that the people of New South Wales get better patient care when they're in our hospitals.
07:13Now I'm going to ask two nurses from the front line to get up and talk about their experiences with
07:18these rollouts.
07:22Hello, my name's Keely. I work in the emergency department here at Selwyn.
07:26I've been here for about five years, so I was here before Safe Staffing rollout and after.
07:31From my experience, Safe Staffing has had a positive impact for both patients and staff.
07:37We have the right nurses in the right places when patients need us.
07:40It gives our managers the flexibility to reallocate nurses on the floor based on the changing environment
07:48and the patient demand in the department.
07:52We're also able to take our breaks more frequently, which helps with our wellbeing and safety.
07:57We can support junior nurses better on the floor, which helps their progression as well.
08:05And yeah, it's been great.
08:08Thanks.
08:10Hello, my name's Angelique. I am said junior nurse. I work here on the wards in Sutherland.
08:17It's welcome news to here this morning. I think particularly having 1-4 in the morning will really help us
08:25deliver safe patient care
08:27and will help especially junior nurses like myself feel substantially more supported and more inclined to stay.
08:37I also think as well that having just come off night shift, it's really nice to wake up through this
08:45morning.
08:46You work for it last night?
08:48Yeah, I did.
08:49Oh, really?
08:50Happy to shoot 7.30.
08:54We're all happy to take questions.
08:57Oh, sorry, Marianne, did you want to...?
08:58I just wanted to say in closing, congratulations to the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association.
09:03This has been a campaign for well over 20 years.
09:06All their officials, all their delegates and all their members, well done.
09:10This, for Simon and I, is the major hospital in the Sutherland Shire.
09:15It's been here for many years.
09:16Many of our families, generations have been through it.
09:19It's a great hospital.
09:20This announcement has been long overdue.
09:22These extra 20 nurses will be so beneficial to support the staff that are here
09:27and also the patients and their family.
09:29It is very welcome.
09:30And only through a Mens Labor government would this have happened.
09:33Like, within three years, this has been rolled out.
09:36An extra 20 nurses again here.
09:38We've got the University of Wollongong campus just down the road
09:41where there's the nursing degree being undertaken
09:43and we've got local nurses behind us that we've just heard from
09:46who then start to graduate and work right here.
09:49And we are so thankful to them and so thankful to all of the staff
09:53that are in this wonderful hospital behind me.
09:57I do take questions.
09:58Lisa, are there any hospitals in the Sutherland that will benefit the most
10:03than we do from that?
10:04Well, the benefit from this rollout is it's across 70 hospitals in New South Wales,
10:10metropolitan, regional, rural and remote.
10:13This is an important reform.
10:15We focused on emergency departments first
10:18and then now we've moved into general wards with this next round of 950.
10:24So we can see some real benefit and the community has every right to trust
10:28we'll be implementing this given that we've already rolled these reforms out
10:32into our emergency departments and still more to do.
10:36But this is the type of work that we need to do
10:38to make sure that our public and our residents
10:41get the very best hospital care available.
10:43What can we expect to see a hospital-weight hospital care?
10:46Well, that's the aim.
10:48What we can expect is faster patient care, safer patient care,
10:52but also, as the Premier highlighted, it's an attraction and retainment issue.
10:57That is very, very important to me as the Health Minister
11:00and obviously to the Premier,
11:01but also to the nurses and midwives across New South Wales
11:04that we both attract and retain staff.
11:08What's going on here?
11:09A OpenAI agent of reach of the Medicare portal.
11:13What do you know about or what you can tell us
11:16and what your response is?
11:17Oh, sure.
11:19Yeah, thanks so much.
11:20Thanks, Julie.
11:22Thanks, Michael.
11:23You can go and sleep now.
11:25Yeah, I know.
