industry & reform
Blacktown Hospital nurses and midwives on strike in November . Photo : Supplied
Safety first
Blacktown Hospital nurses and midwives say understaffing puts health at risk .
By Conor Burke
Nurses and Midwives at the
embattled Blacktown Hospital in
Sydney have continued to protest against their employer , again voicing frustration at understaffing and what they see as a disregard for patient safety .
Staff and members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives ’ Association ( NSWNMA ) Blacktown Hospital Branch gathered outside the hospital in December , the latest in a long line of action which saw nurses walk off the job in November as well as 20 obstetricians threaten to resign en masse over issues in maternity services .
“ Midwives have demanded staffing numbers be increased for over a year now , and management have finally agreed that the service is understaffed ,” said union general secretary Brett Holmes .
“ Even now that our members are at breaking point , these new positions still aren ’ t being advertised and there is no timeframe for when the Local Health District intends to start hiring the additional 15 midwives that our members
16 | nursingreview . com . au have won by standing up for their community .”
The issues at Blacktown hospital came to a head last year with the news that four newborn babies had died at the hospital over the previous 18 months , and staff say that these deaths could have been avoided had staff concerns been headed .
Anna , a midwife who is a member of the NSWNMA Blacktown Hospital Branch , told Nursing Review that staff numbers , conditions and morale at the hospital have been going down slowly over the last few years .
“ Blacktown local government area is a growing area , there ’ s a lot of new estates popping up . So we noticed a trend where a lot of these young couples , young families were moving into the area and coming to have their babies at Blacktown . And we could feel that we were getting busier ,” she said .
“ And so in 2018 we did a Birth Rate Plus which measures how much workload we were doing . And then from that , we did see a pattern that we have been getting busier .”
Since 2015 , births at Blacktown Hospital have increased 52.3 per cent , while staffing has risen 11.5 per cent over the same period , based on those figures .
“ They ’ re not getting the support they need , especially these first-time mothers .
Nearby Westmead hospital has 10 midwives rostered every shift for on average 13.7 deliveries every 24 hours compared to Blacktown , which has 11.5 births every 24 hours with seven midwives rostered .
And the union says that staff are often rostered on for shifts totalling 64 hours over seven days , despite 56 hours being the maximum allowed .
“ And then they ended up closing half of the maternity ward , which puts more strain on them in the long run . Because although we are getting more women , a lot of these women have a lot more complex things that they need to stay in hospital longer for . But the birthing unit doesn ’ t close . “ Mums are coming into labour , we can ’ t stop . So it would fill up in birthing unit , but then the mums who have had babies in the birthing unit can ’ t go up to the maternity ward because there ’ s a limited number of beds ,” Anna said .