By John Thompson
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A staffing crisis at the 22-bed Tocumwal Hospital could see the closure of emergency and general care services, leaving Tocumwal with no hospital, no local ambulance and limited aged care services.
The hospital crisis began last week after three nurses left the multi-purpose centre: one due to maternity leave, another due to sick leave, and the third due to a resignation — leaving the centre with just one registered nurse per shift.
After a meeting with the union and Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) management last week, the centre was able to secure one additional registered nurse until next week (August 7): the minimum it needs to continue operating.
“We’ve got an agency nurse starting today, so that’s keeping us afloat and a few other nurses from other sites are coming over, but other sites are stripped to the brink as well,” said NSW Nurses and Midwives Association secretary Marcia Howes, who also works full-time as one of
Tocumwal Multipurpose Service’s three registered nurses.
The centre has been operating with just one registered nurse, one enrolled nurse and ‘‘a couple of assistants in nursing’’ rostered per shift.
As the most senior health professional on-site, registered nurses are directly responsible for the hospital’s 22 beds and its junior staff while on shift.
“It doesn’t always affect the clients coming through because we do have a high standard of care here,’’ Ms Howes said.
“It is the stress on the staff that feel they haven’t always done the very best that they can because we’re just stretched to the limit.”
It also puts NSW regional health services in a precarious - potentially dangerous - situation when it comes to adequate staffing.
“Nurses are going to Victoria and Queensland, where they’ve got nurse-patient ratios, better pay, and better working conditions,’’ Ms Howes said.
“It is very hard to recruit to New South Wales where the government is not budging on nurse-patient ratios.”
The Nurses and Midwives Association has called upon the NSW Government to implement nurse-patient ratios for years.
It has asked for four registered nurses per shift at larger hospitals and two for smaller clinics and multipurpose centres.
Had its calls been answered, Tocumwal Hospital would not be on the brink of closure during an ever-worsening global health crisis.
“This has been going on longer than COVID-19 has,’’ said Ms Howes.
“This has been a union issue for quite some time and the New South Wales Government doesn’t seem to want to do anything about it.”
If Tocumwal Hospital fails to secure additional staff by August 7, then its acute and A&E units will be forced to close down, however aged care services will continue to operate, albeit in a limited capacity.
In a statement sourced from MLHD, Director of Clinical operations Cherie Puckett said:
“The District is currently recruiting for several nursing positions at Tocumwal Multipurpose Service to develop a skilled workforce.
“This includes targeting local nurses and new candidates from across the region and within Australia.”
According to several regional health care professionals, it can take as long, or longer than six months for a nurse to be employed.
This timeline could see Tocumwal Hospital without adequate permanent staff until as late as 2022 and reliant on an already overwhelmed temporary workforce.
“An agency nurse is a nurse that comes down for a six week contract and then they might go somewhere else for a few week’s contract; management seems to think that they’re going to fill the gap,” explained Ms Howes.
“So that’s the positive stuff we have had from management.”
MLHD also chose to highlight a 2020-21 funding increase of 2.45 per cent within its press release:
“The 2020-21 budget for MLHD is $663.9 million, an increase of $15.9 million (2.45 per cent) on the previous financial year’s budget.”
Tocumwal received just $42,000 or 0.26 percent of this additional spend, an increase from 2019 of just one per cent.
Member for Murray Helen Dalton has asked for state intervention amidst the staffing crisis, reaching out to NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard.
“I’ve contacted Minister Hazzard and he says he will do all he can,” Mrs Dalton said.
“But we also need to urgently look at the chronic understaffing of rural hospitals and dreadful recruitment practices within NSW Health.
“This puts patient lives at risk.
‘‘It’s also a reason our overworked nurses are leaving our region.”