Health crisis:

half of nurses plan to resign

On 20 January the Grapevine reported on the health crisis facing Central Coast Hospitals and hospitals around the state but a new report from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association says that one in three nurses are planning to resign in the next 12 months.

17 February 2023

 

THE mass exodus of nursing staff from our hospitals is yet another symptom of the NSW Liberals’ health crisis.

 

A survey of more than 2,300 nurses, the subject of the report, found that more than half of our nurses are planning to resign in the next five years, including:

 

*One in three nurses planned to resign their current position in the next 12 months;

 

One in five intended to leave the healthcare sector altogether; and

 

*15 per cent were experiencing severe levels of post-traumatic stress.

 

The report reiterated what too many of us know already – our health staff are over-stretched and under-resourced, and too many suffer from high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms.

 

 

Hospitals in NSW have been overwhelmed, under-resourced and severely neglected over the last decade.

 

A quarter of patients waited longer than 30 minutes in the back of the ambulance outside emergency departments – and 10 per cent waited almost seven minutes.

 

Once in the emergency department, half of patients triaged as critical did not start treatment on time, and one in 10 patients needing admission spent almost an entire 24 hours in the ED.

 

Meanwhile over 66,000 patients simply left emergency without receiving or completing their treatment, and almost 18,000 patients were left sitting on the elective surgery waiting list longer than medically recommended.

 

Ryan Park, NSW Shadow Minister for Health, said “What we are seeing is a symptom of 12 years of NSW Liberal and National neglect of our health and hospital system.

 

“Over the past 12 years under the NSW Liberals and Nationals, our hospitals and health staff have been left overstretched and under-resourced, is it any wonder our precious nursing staff are planning to leave in droves?

 

“Ask any loved one who has been to an emergency department recently, our hospitals are overwhelmed.

 

“Our hospitals and health system needs a fresh start, and NSW Labor has a comprehensive plan to deliver that beginning with minimum and enforceable safe staffing levels in public hospitals which will see an additional 1,200 nurses and midwives recruited into the system.”

 

The opposition have also committed an additional 500 rural and regional paramedics in Labor’s first term. This would greatly reduce ambulance wait times and ambulance stacking on the Central Coast.