By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
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A TERMINALLY ill Dandenong cancer patient and former nurse has made an impassioned plea to Premier Ted Baillieu not to make nursing care cuts.
Jennifer Browne, who is receiving palliative care at Monash Medical Centre’s McCulloch House, said she needed the best possible care to live long enough to go to her son Jason’s wedding in three months.
“Mr Baillieu, I implore you not to make these cuts and instead deliver to us the health service we deserve,” she said.
Ms Browne, whose breast cancer has spread to her bones, couldn’t speak more highly of the nursing care she’d received.
“I’ve got full confidence that the doctors and nurses will get me to the wedding. But if the government puts these cuts in place, I’m afraid it may not be possible.”
She joined nurses waving red flags outside the hospital on Wednesday, as part of their long-running industrial action against the state government.
The Australian Nursing Federation is disputing the government’s plans to replace some fully-trained nurses with health assistants, who have three months training.
The government argues it is retaining nurse-to-patient ratios but adding “flexibilities” for employers.
Ms Browne said nurses needed more respect, and services to all patients needed to improve. “We’ve paid taxes all of our lives and we deserve better than getting cuts to the [nursing] budget. Whenever someone in your family is ill, you want to get the best care possible.”
Nurses outside hospitals throughout the state defied a Federal Court order last Tuesday to end their stopwork actions.
Associate nurse unit manager Natasha Mazurek, who was among 30 nurses outside the Dandenong Hospital on Wednesday morning, said she would be taking action for “as long as it takes”. “This is my livelihood, my career and my passion,” she said.
Three of Dandenong Hospital’s eight operating theatres have been closed during the four-hour, twice-a-day stopwork actions, which started last Friday week.
ANF state organiser Leigh Hubbard said surgeries for cancer treatment and category-one elective patients were not affected by the theatre closures.
He said nurses wanted an independent arbiter to deal with concerns such as nurse-patient ratios. “We’ve been negotiating since mid-September and the government hasn’t made an offer, not even for 2.5per cent [annual wage rise].”
Health Minister David Davis said the ANF should comply with the federal order and “act in the interests of Victorian patients and their families by stopping this illegal action”.
“The Government fully supports the resolution of matters in dispute by genuine negotiations. [It] is committed to retaining current nurse-to-patient ratios, however, it supports employers’ desire for local flexibilities to better meet nurses and patient needs. The ANF should stop misrepresenting the employers’ agenda.”
Southern Health did not respond to the Weekly’s inquiries.
