Tomorrow’s industrial action will mean planned surgeries being postponed and longer wait times in our emergency departments.
I want to assure the community that we are doing everything we can to minimise the impact of this on their care.
NSW Health is working hard to ensure postponed surgeries are rescheduled as quickly as reasonably possible.
I also remind the community of pathways to care for non-life-threatening conditions outside of the emergency department – by first phoning Healthdirect on 1800 022 222, where you can speak to a registered nurse about your care options – potentially avoiding an unnecessary wait in the hospital.
You can continue to phone 000 in the event of an emergency.
Over the course of four weeks of intensive negotiations we have reached agreement on all of the Association’s non-wage claims, as well as put forward a range of options to fund and deliver a new increased wage offer.
The Association had previously agreed to cease industrial action contingent on the Government paying nurses and midwives an interim increase while work towards a final settlement remains on foot, in order to shield patient care from impacts arising from industrial action.
I am disappointed the Association has walked away from this commitment to the Industrial Relations Commission and the community.
As the President of the Commission has said this “is a failure by a major industrial party to abide by a commitment given to this Commission” and “industrial action next Wednesday is unnecessary. It will cost nurses pay and cause inconvenience and worse to patients and their families.”
The Government has made major investments in nursing and midwifery wages:
- Removing the wages cap and delivering a 4.5 per cent wage increase last year;
- Offering a baseline 10.5 per cent wage increase over the next three years; and
- Combined this is around a $15,000 increase for the typical nurse per annum
We’re delivering on major commitments to reform of staffing and conditions:
- Implementation of Safe Staffing Levels underway in 16 Emergency Departments with over 100 additional nurses already started and over $1 billion allocated;
- Investing $572 million to save the jobs of 1,112 nurses unfunded from 1 July; and
- $121 million in Health Study Subsidies including almost 2,000 studying or graduating from nursing this year.
As a result of these investments since forming Government we’ve seen:
- Nursing numbers at record levels – increasing by over 2,000 FTE to over 56,000 FTE since taking office;
- Nurse retention rates restored to pre-COVID levels – as of 30 June 2024 retention has improved a further 1 per cent to 93.6 per cent over the last 12 months; and
- A record 7,000 new nurses commencing with NSW Health last financial year – over 1,550 more than in 2022/23 and 1,800 more than 2021/22.
