Victorian nurses vote to close hospital beds
Date Updated:
Hundreds of Victorian public sector nurses, midwives and mental health nurses will up the ante in their fight with the State Government for better pay and conditions.
Nurses will begin protected industrial action, including closing one in three hospital beds, from 7am on November 12, after a unanimous vote at Festival Hall.
Beds will only be closed where there is no threat to safety or welfare and up to 800 beds are expected to be affected within days, as patients are discharged.
Nurses are rallying for an 18.5 per cent pay rise over three years and eight months while the Baillieu Government has offered a 2.5 per cent rise per year.
ANF Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said nurses and midwives won’t accept the government’s plans to cut 1758 nurses as part of a $105 million cost saving plan.
“Nurses and midwives are taking action as a last resort to protect their patients from the plan to abolish ratios and replace them with health assistants and cut their shifts from eight to four hours,” she said.
The new bans will also result in one in every three operating sessions being cancelled, including endoscopy and day procedure, radiology nurses banning one in three elective bookings, and outpatient nurses banning one in three new referrals to outpatient clinics and one in four review appointments, all with exemptions.
Post-acute care nurses, hospital in the home nurses, HARP nurses and district nurses will also ban one in three new referrals, with exemptions.
The bans, which will not affect the Royal Children’s Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, will remain in place until a new agreement is reached and accepted by a state-wide meeting of ANF members.
Conciliation talks between the ANF, Victorian Government and the Victorian Hospitals’ Industrial Association will continue at Fair Work Australia from 9am on November 12.
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