As the state election nears, Wollongong hospital nurses say they are deflated, exhausted, disrespected and ready to give up after years of calling for better pay and working conditions.
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In a series of messages to their union, seen by the Mercury, members from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Wollongong hospital branch have described what they want to public to know about their day-to-day working lives amid the election campaign.
One said sick calls from her colleagues were increasing by the day with most of her shifts staffed with a one-to-10 nurse to patient ratio.
"The minimum hours I work a week are generally anywhere from 50 to 60 hours, and I'm not the only one," she said.
"[There are] regular redeployments if we actually manage to staff a shift [and] permanent beds closed due to staffing levels.:
She said she was also noticing an increase in burnout, with nurses speaking up about their suffering mental health.
Another described the tough conditions nurses face.
"We are not there to be slaves," she said. "A supermarket checkout operator has one job and one customer at a time, however when a nurse goes to work they automatically have a minimum of four patients to care for, with still one set of legs and one set of arms.
"A doctor with 50 patients and operating on one of those patients cannot just drop what they are doing because of unruly patients or family members."
She said nurses did not have time for sufficient lunch breaks of toilet breaks, but spent shifts being "spoken to like we are the enemy."
"We are exhausted and no longer want to deal with constant disrespect from patients, families, governments, management who go home at the end of an 8 hours one job shift and leave a ward coping whatever way they can," she said.
"Nobody but a nurse and her colleagues understand the pressure of a day-to-day nurse."
A nurse of 42 years said she was trying to work out when she could go part time, while another said she was "absolutely deflated... I've worked for 34 years and never hated going to work so much. I'm just so lucky I work with the most amazing team."
How politicians plan to help
With the pressures on the health system well documented, political parties have made health one of the main election issues.
In the June budget, the Perrottet Government promised to deliver moe than 10,000 new full-time staff in the state's hospitals over four years, with a $4.5 billion investment over four years intended to relieve pressure on existing staff.
Health workers also got a one-off $3000 payment, but the payrises the government has committed to are well below what is being asked.
Mr Perrottet also joined state and territory leaders last week in a push to review the country's Medicare system, acknowledging hospitals around the country were under pressure.
NSW Labor has committed to scrapping the current rostering system and putting in place enforceable, shift by shift safe staffing levels in hospitals, but stopped short of agreeing to the specific ratios the nurses union has been campaigning for.
Nurses have been asking for mandated staffing levels of one nurse to four patients in most wards, and one nurse to three patients in the emergency department.
Labor committed to an extra 1200 nurses and midwives, in addition to the state government's additional recruits outlined in the June budget.
This week, Illawarra Greens hopefuls met outside Wollongong Hospital on Monday to spruik their party's promise to give nurses and midwives the pay and staffing support they've been campaigning for.
The party said it hopes to gain more seats in both houses of state parliament to influence whichever major party gains power, and wants to give health workers an immediate 15 per cent pay rise and said they would commit to NSWNMA ratios.
The Wollongong hospital nurses and expressed concern that staffing would only worsen in the future without significant change.
"I feel sorry for young nurses coming up... just hope we win the fight because if it doesn't change, the shortfall is going to get larger," one nurse said.
Another said she wanted management to say no to accepting more patients when there was no staff to deal with them, while others said the whole health system needed to change.
"The community need to voice that not being able to get an appointment with the GP and having to pay for that visit when you finally get one is not right, and it's not ok and not working for any member of the community," one said.
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.
