The Nurses and Midwives Association is planning more industrial action tomorrow, this time in the form of an all-day strike, as their case for a 15% pay rise continues to be met with silence from the NSW Government.

Last Friday, the Industrial Relations Commission issued a recommendation that the NSW Nurses & Midwives Association should cease tomorrow's planned industrial action.

Hearings at the Commission are ongoing today to seek to avoid impacts to patient and community safety.

The NSW Health Minister said in a press release:

There is no doubt this strike action will impact on our public health system, from longer waits in emergency rooms to cancelled non-emergency surgeries.

While all local health districts have plans in place to minimise disruption, the strikes will very likely affect people seeking care.

We assure the community they should not hesitate to go to their local hospital for emergency care.

All patients will be seen and triaged on arrival at the ED and, as always, the most seriously unwell patients are treated first.

Tomorrow, we expect to see people with less urgent conditions experience longer wait times, with seriously unwell patients being prioritised for emergency care. 

NSW Health has also already started to contact people across the state whose planned surgeries will need to be postponed because of the strikes. 

We remind the community of alternative options already available to them for less urgent minor conditions and keep emergency departments and ambulances for saving lives.

Free health advice is available to people across NSW 24/7 by calling Healthdirect on 1800 022 222. A registered nurse will assess their condition and then connect them to the right care for them, close to home or virtually.

This may include booking an appointment at an Urgent Care Service on the patient’s behalf, making a telehealth appointment with the virtualKIDS or virtualGP services, or escalating their care to other services like NSW Ambulance if required.

Nothing is more important to me as Minister for Health than investing in our essential health workers.

This statement is contradiction to the statement released by NSWNMA General Secretary, Shaye Candish. She said members were sick and tired of being undervalued, overworked, and not listened to.

“The state government is not bargaining in good faith. Not once in our 10 negotiation meetings has the government sat at the table and discussed nurses and midwives’ pay. That’s despite us finding significant cost savings through our Rapid Business Case,” said Ms Candish.

“It’s clear the state government is choosing to pay nurses and midwives the lowest wages in the country, and it will continue to see our public health system fall apart if it doesn’t pay nurses and midwives enough to stay in NSW.”

The NSW Government then talked about its achievements since coming to power.

Working in partnership with the Association and NSW Health, we have achieved much together since taking Government, including:

·         Nurse retention levels reaching pre-COVID levels - as of 30 June 2024 retention has improved a further one per cent to 93.6 per cent over the past 12 months;

·         Investing heavily in the nursing workforce - including $572 million to save the jobs of 1,112 whose positions were unfunded from 1 July 2024;

·         Rolling out Safe Staffing Levels - implementation is now commencing across 16 of our Emergency Departments across metropolitan and regional NSW;

·         Achieving nurse numbers at record levels - the nursing workforce has increased by over 2,000 FTE to over 56,000 FTE since taking office; and

·         Removing the wages cap and delivering much needed wage increases - the majority of NSWNMA members voted to accept a 4.5 per cent wage increase last year, the highest increase in over a decade.

The Government remains at the negotiating table and ready to continue to work in good faith.

There will be a rally between 10am and 12 noon at Spinks Park, 133 Molesworth Street, Lismore CBD tomorrow (Tuesday).