More than 85 nursing positions will be made redundant at the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS), in what the union says is the biggest single cut to the service in more than 15 years.
The union representing nurses, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANWF), said the total number of jobs lost at the organisation would be 150.
The job losses come as the number of RDNS centres across Melbourne is being reduced from 14 to four operating hubs.
According to the RDNS website, the not-for-profit organisation provides home nursing and health care to almost 10,000 people in Melbourne, regional Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand.
The majority of its services are funded by both federal and state governments, and supplemented by fees, donations and sponsorships.
Acting state secretary Paul Gilbert at the ANWF said the losses would include a number of senior nursing positions.
“It’s the biggest single cut to nursing positions we’ve seen since [former Victorian premier] Jeff Kennett came in,” Mr Gilbert said.
“I know the RDNS are saying it won’t impact on direct care, but the sort of people we’re talking about here are senior specialist nurses in areas like wound management, aged care, palliative care.
“They’re the people who help the day-to-day nurses do the really specialised work and that will impact on care.”
Move to modernise district nursing
But RDNS said the downsizing its metropolitan offices into four operating hubs would allow nurses to start and finish work without needing to report to an office.
Victorian general manager Fiona Hearn said the changes would benefit its clients and improve services.
“Allowing nurses to focus on smaller geographic areas means they can spend more time nursing and less time driving,” Ms Hearn said.
“The model of operation we’ve had in place for well over 30 years, and what we want to do is put in place a modern operating environment.
“These changes just affect our office staff, the staff who visit people in their homes continue as they are.”
Ms Hearn said some redundancies were unavoidable and staff would be able to apply for newly created roles.
“Some of those staff [singled out by the union] will be affected, but it’s about looking at improving the structure, and ensuring we have the right skills for everyone in Melbourne to access and for our staff to access,” she said.
Mr Gilbert said staff were notified of the cuts on Tuesday afternoon and the staff made redundant would need to leave the organisation by April.
“We’ll lose 10 centres across Melbourne stretching across Rosebud, across Altona, Werribee, the eastern suburbs, so everywhere will be affected,” he said.