The peak of the latest COVID-19 wave may be over but staff shortages continue to plague Illawarra hospitals, with bosses this week pleading with nurses to take extra shifts to help plug holes in the roster .
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In an email sent out on Wednesday, nurses were asked to pick up "any additional shifts between now and Monday, 15 August".
"There are significant staffing issues across the district," the email said.
"Any shifts/hours will be greatly appreciated. Overtime is supported."
The Illawarra Shoalhaven Health District's Executive Director of Clinical Operations Margaret Martin said there had been around 100 staff members furloughed each day across the district due to COVID-19 in recent months.
"This is in addition to staff who are unavailable due to various forms of leave each day," she said, noting the exact number of staff unavailable for work fluctuated daily.
"Hospitals and emergency departments across the Local Health District (LHD) continue to manage the impacts of high community rates of COVID-19, this includes staff unable to attend work due to being unwell with COVID, a close contact or sick with the other seasonal ailments such as influenza."
She said there were well-established workforce surge and demand management plans to make sure clinical staff were deployed to care areas with the highest demand.
"One of the ways in which the District helps ensure unexpected shift vacancies are filled quickly is by communicating with staff via text, email and phone," she said.
Overtime was high on the agenda at the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) annual conference last week in Sydney, where delegates and members discussed the urgent need to address staffing and workload issues.
New NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish said overtime and working short was becoming normalised.
"This is not safe staffing and the growing evidence of burnout and fatigue among nurses and midwives is beyond alarming," she said.
"Our members are fed up with being ignored by the NSW government and they are desperate for change. They have been put through enormous moral injury and are done being overworked."
Previously, Wollongong nurses union delegate Genevieve Stone has spoken out about overtime requests, saying the NSW Government was "exploiting our empathy" by relying on extra shifts and overtime to fill rosters.
At the conference, NSWNMA delegates and members indicated they would continue to push for nursing and midwifery ratios, which they say will improve patient safety and workforce sustainability.
Understaffing in the Illawarra health system has been under scrutiny this year, with extended emergency department waiting times and ambulance bed block becoming routine.
Despite the staff shortages, Ms Martin said patients in Illawarra emergency departments would always be triaged and seen according to the clinical urgency of their condition.
"We continue to ask the community to please support us in our efforts to make sure those who need emergency medical care receive it as quickly as possible by saving ambulances and emergency departments for saving lives," she said.
For non-life threatening or urgent conditions, patients are asked to consider visiting a medical centre, a GP or contacting HealthDirect on 1800 022 222.
Read more about the pressures on the region's health system:
- Record number of COVID-19 deaths for Illawarra
- Federal help needed to fix region's hospital system: Illawarra health chief
- Midwives expose crisis in Wollongong Hospital's maternity ward
- Illawarra nurses to stop work, amid days of industrial action
- 'Heartbreaking': Baby with pneumonia not seen for hours in Wollongong ED
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
