ANMF (SA Branch) Health Policy Position Statement

 

The ANMF (SA Branch) developed our own Health policy position statements for the South Australian parliamentary election. These were released in July 2021 to allow the political parties time to respond to them, speak to our Annual Conference in late 2021 and engage with us in the development of their own policies.

With the strength of more than 23,000+ members the ANMF (SA Branch) actively seeks to influence the policy positions of all political parties on issues of interest to nurses, midwives, and personal care workers and in the interest of healthy public policy.

Why?

The chronic issues facing the South Australian health system have never been so dire and in such urgent need of redress as they are right now. Even without the impact of COVID19, the health system in SA was under serious strain. It has struggled to meet the demand of the public for care, and the growing shortages in the workforce of people with the knowledge, skills and experience needed to deliver those services. It is critical that all serious candidates address the future funding and capacity of our state health system.

We desperately need a health system that retains and attracts nurses, midwives and care workers. The consequences otherwise for society will be catastrophic. We know there are solutions to the many issues confronting health in this state, and we have offered those solutions in the past and will continue to offer them to whichever party forms government.

 

The full Health Policy Position Statement can be viewed here.

 

Labor’s win at the State election 2022 offers new hope for health


The ANMF (SA Branch) looks forward to working with the new Labor Government to help bring about the changes needed to bolster the health system, for the benefit of nurses, midwives and care workers, and also for the better health and wellbeing of the community at large.

Labor gave detailed commitments on each of the key health policy position statement asks of the ANMF (SA Branch).

They committed to legislate for ratios, they promised and budgeted for additional beds (300 of them) and capacity, and they vowed to end privatisation and assure public ownership.

In addition, Labor committed to 350 extra paramedics and ambulance officers, 300 extra nurses and 100 extra doctors.

Already, the Labor Government has committed to legislate nurse to patient ratios across state hospitals during its first term in government, they have officially scrapped the building of the $662 million basketball stadium and committed that money to health, with approximately $78m being immediately made available and details of how the remainder will be spent to be announced as part of Labor’s first budget later in the year.

Labor says an extra 24 intensive care beds at the RAH are being readied for use for next month’s expected surge of COVID cases. The Premier has abolished the COVID Ready Committee and replaced it with the Emergency Management Council and introduced significant changes to South Australia’s COVID restrictions which aligns us further with other States and Territories in Australia.

Mr Malinauskas has also confirmed new “KPIs” for Labor’s pledge to recruit 300 more nurses, 100 more doctors and 350 more ambos.

By June 30 next year, the State Government hopes to have 24 more doctors, 100 nurses and 99 ambos online “over and above attrition”, The Advertiser reports. Launching a new local, interstate and overseas health recruitment drive on Tuesday, Mr Malinauskas said the 300 nurses would be mainly people coming through as recent graduates.

The ANMF (SA Branch) will continue to advocate for nurses, midwives and carers to the new Government. We applaud their commitments to health and believe they will go a long way to addressing the needs of the health system. However, we will also monitor developments very closely and hold the Labor Party to account to deliver their pre-election promises.