NSW hospital closures:
Nurses take public hospital issues to the streets

by Peter Mac

Striking nurses from Sydney's Westmead Hospital took the issue of the 
deteriorating NSW public hospital system to the streets of Parramatta last 
Friday. This follows a recent two-hour strike by nurses from Sydney's Royal 
Prince Alfred Hospital during which they staged a street rally over 
hospital bed closures.

The hospital funding cuts have been initiated by both State and Federal 
Governments, and have their origin in the massive transfer of funds to the 
private sector, in particular the $1.5 billion tax rebate for private 
health insurance.

In NSW the hospital budget cuts have been achieved in part by the 
withdrawal of special funding which had been allocated to reduce hospital 
waiting lists.

As the Guardian noted last week, cuts in public health funding are 
biting so deep that some hospitals are proposing to cut food standards in 
order to limit cuts to surgery and hospital beds.

Westmead Hospital is facing a cut of $6.5 million, which will mean that it 
must cut 325 operating sessions. It also faces cuts to available beds and 
other services.

Westmead's head of medicine, Professor Richard Kefford, recently said he 
felt he was being asked to breach his patient "duty of care" when requested 
to discharge patients in the hospital's overcrowded waiting room.

Westmead nurses voted overwhelmingly to take part in the two-hour strike, 
despite assurances from the NSW Director-General of Health Mick Reid that 
there would be no bed closures at Westmead unless there was a "commensurate 
reduction in demand".

Assistant General Secretary of the NSW Nurses' Association, Brett Holmes, 
commented: "... there is no mention there of the surgery reductions and the 
members thought that once the demand dropped off — as it would once the 
surgery levels were cut — then the beds would close anyway."

The Association is planning a state-wide strike in two weeks time, if no 
progress is made in discussions with the Minister for Health in the 
meantime.

Association Secretary Sandra Moait said that the Association intended to 
ensure that Mr Reid was "well-briefed by nurses actually working the wards" 
and that if the talks were unsuccessful, the union would launch a state-
wide campaign for more money for public patient clinical care.

"Any campaign would include rallies and industrial action", she added.