Ms CARNEY - 2005-03-23
The General Manager of the Alice Springs Hospital said on ABC radio on 15 February: ‘We are happy with the amount of recruitment that we have been doing’. We assume you are also happy with the level of recruitment because, in a radio interview on 22 February, you said: ‘Nurses are not a problem in terms of numbers’, and the number of nurses was ‘up to scratch’. Your failure to tell the truth has angered many nurses, lowered their morale, and has made the ongoing industrial action at the Alice Springs Hospital worse. Why do you continue to perpetrate the myth that there are enough nurses at the hospital?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I will come over here because I can look directly at you and not be provoked.
Madam SPEAKER: Not be provoked; that is correct.
Dr TOYNE: The first thing I would say is, if the nurses are so angered at what I have said or done as Minister for Health on this issue, I wonder why they passed a formal resolution at their meeting of trust in me - that is in black and white. They did not mention the member for Araluen, I am afraid.
Let us go through the sequence. In December last year, yes, we were short of nurses. We are every year as there is a seasonal pattern to the recruitment and retention of nurses. Often, nurses come to follow a career year-by-year in Alice Sprints. They leave, not surprisingly, at the end of a calendar year. Therefore, we have a drop in nursing numbers, and we re-recruit up to the establishment as early as possible in the following year. That has been going on for many years, certainly well before our government came to power.
The difference this year has been that there was a 10% increase in the number of presentations of patients into the Emergency Department at Alice Springs Hospital, which was much higher than average. That clearly put pressure on the nurses working there. I have heard directly from the nurses during my meetings with them of double shifts they have been working, and high levels of pressure they have had to deal with in their job. That is not unusual in the health professions. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that the high presentations and the lower than normal full complement of nurses coincided.
Since December, we have recruited 44 nurses to the hospital. My understanding from hospital management was that they were 45 nurses short of management in December; therefore, we should be close to the establishment of 316 nurses right now, counting the mental health service area of the hospital. I point out that the moral high ground does not belong with the opposition on this. In their day, the nurses complement in the hospital was 277. We have put 33 additional nurses into the establishment of that hospital, and 39 additional establishment positions are now being recruited to give that hospital significant new capacity.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I will come over here because I can look directly at you and not be provoked.
Madam SPEAKER: Not be provoked; that is correct.
Dr TOYNE: The first thing I would say is, if the nurses are so angered at what I have said or done as Minister for Health on this issue, I wonder why they passed a formal resolution at their meeting of trust in me - that is in black and white. They did not mention the member for Araluen, I am afraid.
Let us go through the sequence. In December last year, yes, we were short of nurses. We are every year as there is a seasonal pattern to the recruitment and retention of nurses. Often, nurses come to follow a career year-by-year in Alice Sprints. They leave, not surprisingly, at the end of a calendar year. Therefore, we have a drop in nursing numbers, and we re-recruit up to the establishment as early as possible in the following year. That has been going on for many years, certainly well before our government came to power.
The difference this year has been that there was a 10% increase in the number of presentations of patients into the Emergency Department at Alice Springs Hospital, which was much higher than average. That clearly put pressure on the nurses working there. I have heard directly from the nurses during my meetings with them of double shifts they have been working, and high levels of pressure they have had to deal with in their job. That is not unusual in the health professions. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that the high presentations and the lower than normal full complement of nurses coincided.
Since December, we have recruited 44 nurses to the hospital. My understanding from hospital management was that they were 45 nurses short of management in December; therefore, we should be close to the establishment of 316 nurses right now, counting the mental health service area of the hospital. I point out that the moral high ground does not belong with the opposition on this. In their day, the nurses complement in the hospital was 277. We have put 33 additional nurses into the establishment of that hospital, and 39 additional establishment positions are now being recruited to give that hospital significant new capacity.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016