Critically ill can't get beds, says Snowball

WA Health Minister Kim Hames says nurses are only taking industrial action because an election is coming up. Source: The Sunday Times

Industrial action by nurses means critically ill patients are unable to get beds, says WA health boss Kim Snowball. Source: PerthNow

Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Mark Olson has rejected suggestions patients are being put at risk. Source: PerthNow

INDUSTRIAL action by Perth hospital nurses is about politics, not pay, West Australian Health Minister Kim Hames says.

Nurses at Perth's major hospitals voted to close one in five beds in their campaign for higher pay and fewer menial tasks at a mass union meeting today, a move the health department said was already affecting patients.

As the department considered taking the dispute to the state's Industrial Relations Commission, Mr Hames took aim at the Australian Nursing Federation.

"They are starting this industrial action because there is an election on, just to put pressure on the government,'' Mr Hames said.

"They are just choosing to make hay while the sun shines and take this political action to draw attention to the fact they are a union and there is an election on.

"If you look back at the history of the ANF before every single past election they have taken significant industrial action, more so with Liberals than with Labor.

"To take action that will significantly affect patients desperately waiting for their surgery is in my view inappropriate.''

The Australian Nursing Federation is seeking a 20 per cent wage rise over three years.

The state has offered three per cent a year - roughly equivalent to inflation - and a further 1.25 per cent per annum if the nurses give up certain conditions.

NURSE ACTIONS 'IRRESPONSIBLE'

Earlier today, Department of Health director-general Kim Snowball said the industrial action by WA nurses was "irresponsible'', and seriously damaging care in major hospitals.

Mr Snowball said several hospitals already didn't have enough beds to admit patients from emergency departments or theatre.

"This is not just an inconvenience, this is seriously damaging our patient care ability in our major hospitals,'' Mr Snowball told ABC radio.

"I have already been advised that two critically ill patients have not been able to get a bed, and we are documenting that so we can go straight to the industrial commission to get these bans lifted.

"We can't survive as a system if this continues on in the way it has already.''

ANF WA secretary Mark Olson denied patients were being put at risk by the action.

"Any cases where it will lead to a deterioration in the patient's condition they will be dealt with,'' he said.

"No one is going to die because of this action, no one is going to lose a limb over this action.

"But we learned from the last negotiations that when we are polite, we sit around the table for a very long time.''

Mr Snowball said he would engage the Industrial Relations Commission immediately.

It was unprecedented for industrial action to be called four months from the end of the existing agreement, he said.

"I am accusing the ANF of being irresponsible. And I do not understand why we have industrial action at a time when we can't respond to that with a wage offer,'' he said.

Yesterday, Premier Colin Barnett said his government supported nurses, but could not negotiate while in the caretaker period before the March 9 election.

"Once that caretaker period is over, and if this government is re-elected, we will negotiate with the nurses to have a new agreement in place when it is due in June or July,'' Mr Barnett said.

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