LESS than a week out from a major move into Tamworth’s new hospital building, the nurses union and hospital management are locked in a stalemate.
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Emergency department nurses are resolute: they will not move into the new $220 million facility until their staffing concerns are met.
But Hunter New England Health maintains emergency staff will move in next Wednesday as planned.
Last week, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association Tamworth branch president Matthew Cartan said the hospital had breached a state award, with only one emergency nurse rostered to cover both the triage and resuscitation roles during the night shift.
The union had called on management to employ an additional full-time nurse for the night shift immediately, to no avail.
Mr Cartan said the situation would become more perilous for patients in the new building, where the resuscitation rooms and triage area are further apart to the point where they are out of sight, making it more difficult for a lone nurse to cover.
“As the emergency department staff have explained many, many times, because of where the resuscitation rooms are and where the triage is in the new site, it will be more dangerous than what it is at the moment,” he said.
The branch also believes presentations to the new emergency department could increase by 10 to 15 per cent.
It said it didn’t want hospital management dragging their heels or failing to recognise the severity of the risk to patients.
Tamworth hospital general manager Brad Hansen said he was continuing to work closely with staff and the union to reach an agreement and he was “confident” they would transition services into the new building as planned.
“The current staffing model will transition into the new emergency department in line with patient presentations,” Mr Hansen said.
“We will continue to review staffing levels in line with patient demand.”
He said an on-call registered nurse would provide additional support to the emergency department when required.
“The on-call arrangement will stay in place temporarily until the hospital has had an opportunity to review emergency department activity ... to further inform the final decision about rostering long-term,” Mr Hansen said.
The union has called for the workload issue to be addressed urgently and indicated it would seek intervention by the Department of Health to resolve the staffing dispute, if necessary.
“The emergency staff are very concerned,” Mr Cartan said.
“The nurses are here to provide safe patient care ... the branch and local nurses will not do anything to endanger patient safety.”
