{"id":1812,"date":"2019-03-10T09:08:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T09:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2019-03-10T09:08:12","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T09:08:12","slug":"nsw-labor-to-deliver-more-than-4900-extra-health-and-hospital-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/03\/10\/nsw-labor-to-deliver-more-than-4900-extra-health-and-hospital-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW Labor to deliver more than 4,900 extra health and hospital workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Daley Labor Government deliver an additional 4,900 health and hospital workers \u2013 including paramedics, allied health workers, security staff, cleaning and support staff \u2013 to support existing staff so they can provide the best patient care.<br \/>\nNSW Labor Leader Michael Daley made the announcement alongside Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord and Health Services Union NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes.<br \/>\nThe more than 4,900 additional health workers will include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1,500 additional paramedics;<\/li>\n<li>2,240 additional cleaning and support personnel \u2013 and allied health workers including audiologists, nutritionists, occupational therapists, orthoptics and radiographers;<\/li>\n<li>Filling 900 vacant staff positions;<\/li>\n<li>250 additional hospital security staff with special powers to detain and equipment including handcuffs; and<\/li>\n<li>15 allied health directors \u2013 one in every local health district \u2013 to coordinate health workers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition, Labor committed to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keeping all public health services in public hands \u2013 and no privatisations;<\/li>\n<li>Capping hospital parking fees for hospital staff at $10 per week \u2013 after current contracts end;<\/li>\n<li>Removing the salary-packaging fee for health and hospital workers with a salary under $70,000;<\/li>\n<li>Establishing an independent review to examine issues affecting health workers; and<\/li>\n<li>Reviewing and examining NSW health and local health district purchasing practices to identify opportunities to improve patient care.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Under the Liberals and Nationals, the health and hospital system has lurched from crisis to crisis. It has been plagued with staff shortages, unfilled positions and dangerously low staffing levels across suburban and regional NSW.<br \/>\nIn this term, the Liberals and Nationals have tried unsuccessfully to privatise five regional hospitals &#8211; including Wyong, Goulburn, Shellharbour, Bowral and Maitland. They only shelved the plans due to pressure from the local community, unions and local Labor MPs.<br \/>\nNSW Labor leader Michael Daley said that NSW Labor will be delivering the largest increase to hospital staffing in a generation.<br \/>\n\u201cAfter eight years of misplaced priorities and neglect by the Liberal-National Government, our hospitals are under enormous pressure\u201d, Mr Daley said.<br \/>\n\u201cOnly Labor will deliver enough health and hospital staff to fix the chronic under-staffing and under-resourcing of the state\u2019s hospitals.\u201d<br \/>\nThe 1,500 paramedics will be deployed across the State \u2013 over the next eight years \u2013to bring down emergency response times which have become the second slowest in Australia \u2013 after Tasmania.<br \/>\nMr Secord said: \u201cMake no mistake, the Liberals and Nationals are scrambling to undo the damage of their eight years of neglect of the health and hospital system.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cWhile the Liberals and National splurge $2.2 billion on stadiums, Labor will invest in the health and hospital system. Labor will support doctors, nurses and health and hospital workers rather than splurging on stadiums.\u201d<br \/>\nToday\u2019s announcement builds on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New hospitals in Sydney\u2019s North West, Eurobodalla; and the Tweed;<\/li>\n<li>Various hospital upgrades and expanded services across the State including St George, Wollongong, Nepean, Bankstown, Taree, Bathurst, Yass, Cooma, Goulburn, Milton-Ulladulla, Children\u2019s Hospital Randwick, Delegate and Bombala;<\/li>\n<li>A plan to fix Northern Beaches Hospital;<\/li>\n<li>5,500 extra nurses \u2013 under Labor\u2019s nurse-to-patient ratios;<\/li>\n<li>A drug summit;<\/li>\n<li>24 hour pharmacies;\u00a0 and<\/li>\n<li>Q Fever vaccinations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Daley Labor Government deliver an additional 4,900 health and hospital workers \u2013 including paramedics, allied health workers, security staff, cleaning and support staff \u2013 to support existing staff so they can provide the best patient care. NSW Labor Leader Michael Daley made the announcement alongside Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord and Health Services Union &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/03\/10\/nsw-labor-to-deliver-more-than-4900-extra-health-and-hospital-workers\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;NSW Labor to deliver more than 4,900 extra health and hospital workers&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}