22 August 2019
At this week’s negotiation meeting with SA Health/State Government representatives (20 August), the ANMF (SA Branch) outlined our proposal for country staffing.
Keeping in mind that the parties have agreed to a joint working group to discuss the implementation of a staff allocation model to replace the existing Nursing/Midwifery Hours Per Patient Day (NMHPPD) model, this will mean changes for country staffing as well.
One of the key areas we are focusing on is the better alignment of work across the acute, emergency department and aged care patient care areas. We have sought agreement from Country Health to staffing in each of the separate patient care areas to reflect the needs of the Hospital. This might mean that each patient care area has a separate roster, where the activity or geographic footprint of the hospital requires staff to be allocated to a specific area to provide safe patient care.
In addition, we tabled member concerns about the onerous documentation obligations. SA Health has already commenced work to remove duplication of documentation and requested examples of where members believe that documentation needs to be reviewed.
Finally, we tabled member concerns about the performance of non-clinical duties which are intruding on members capacity to provide safe patient care. SA Health has also requested specific examples they can review, as they agree that where work can be performed more efficiently by other work groups, it should be.
We request that members email
[email protected] with specific examples to help us progress those discussions further. In the absence of evidence to support these claims, we believe they may be matters best dealt with at a local level, rather than within bargaining.
The upcoming negotiation meeting has been set aside for the Staffing Allocation Model Joint Working Group to discuss the transition to the new staffing model.
Stay up to date with Enterprise Agreement Bargaining discussions at
anmfsa.org.au/standup