An urgent meeting has been held to ease the tension between the nurses union and South Australian Government over its Transforming Health overhaul.
The Nursing and Midwifery Federation lost patience after the so-called “implementation schedule” documents arrived last week failed to provide the detail it was looking for.
It wrote to Health Minister Jack Snelling stating it was “deeply concerned by the lack of meaningful information and detailed timeframes listed in these documents”.
Union state secretary Elizabeth Dabars said the uncertainty had placed nurses under stress.
“We have been frustrated by the level of detail and the amount of time that has passed since the release of the Transforming Health agenda,” she said.
Under Transforming Health, the Repatriation General Hospital at Daw Park is to be shut and major changes are planned for other hospitals such as Modbury.
The letter stated that for nurses employed at hospitals earmarked for relocation or closure, information revealed so far had been “manifestly inadequate and will do little to ease their ongoing concerns over their future”.
It also demanded more information about bed and jobs cuts.
“This document [implementation schedule] contains no information on potential impacts of these measures on employment security, pay and conditions,” the letter said.
More information to be released: Snelling
During a 45-minute meeting, Mr Snelling assured the union more information would be released about Transforming Health as soon as it became available.
“Unfortunately, there is still some uncertainty a lot of these moves are dependent on rebuilds, so, for example, we can’t move off the Repat site until the new rehabilitation building at Flinders Medical Centre is completed,” he said.
“We’re not hiding anything and as soon as we have information that we’re confident in and confident about its accuracy then we’ll provide that information.”
Mr Snelling conceded that beds would be cut but only when patient flows through hospitals improved.
Some nurses would also have their roles changed but the Minister said there would not be wholesale job cuts.
“They’re not going to lose their job,” he said.
“We’re not going to be out there sacking nurses. That’s something that’s simply not going to happen.”
Ms Dabars said the union would hold Mr Snelling to his assurances.
“Our plan from this point is to ensure that commitment gets transferred into a legally binding document,” she said.
Opposition Health spokesman Stephen Wade said the fact nurses had spoken out was telling.
“The Nurses Federation has been one of the stakeholders who have bent over backwards to give the Government the benefit of the doubt to help them implement their plan,” he said.
“Now, nine months in, they’ve blown the whistle.”