Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Nurses and midwives at Northern Beaches Hospital begin strike action
ABC NEWS (Australia)
Follow
3/24/2025
Hundreds of nurses and midwives at the Northern Beaches Hospital have walked off the job amid an on-going pay dispute with private health provider Healthscope.
Category
📺
TV
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
This strike action is going to last until 8am tomorrow.
00:06
Essentially what we're seeing is hundreds of nurses and midwives walk off just the job
00:11
here at Northern Beaches Hospital.
00:13
That's despite the fact that Healthscope runs a dozen hospitals right across the state of
00:18
New South Wales.
00:19
However, it's just this one here that's undertaking strike action.
00:22
However, it is regarding working conditions for all the workers covered by the Healthscope
00:27
agreement.
00:29
There's an interesting thing here at Northern Beaches Hospital which is quite unique in
00:33
that it is a privately administered hospital through Healthscope, however it's a publicly
00:37
funded one.
00:38
It was built by the state government and then subcontracted out at the time of its initial
00:43
establishment to ensure that health services could be provided by Healthscope.
00:49
Now nurses are saying that there are unreasonable expectations on the workforce and for quality
00:54
patient care.
00:56
They say that ratios are among their key demands here, wanting to see what has been agreed
01:01
to in the public system now enacted here at the Northern Beaches Hospital.
01:06
We want 1 to 1 in resus, we want 1 to 2 in HDU, we want 1 to 3 in ED and 1 to 4 on the
01:13
floor, which are safety standards that give us the best outcomes for our patients.
01:20
Are they the ratios in the public sector at the moment?
01:22
Well they're the ratios that have been promised to the public sector.
01:25
So the government has been very, very slow to roll them out, so no blinkers on there.
01:31
But it's certainly what we want.
01:33
There's also demands around pay and conditions.
01:35
The union wants to see a 15% one-off pay raise as well as improvements to night shift and
01:41
overnight penalty affordances.
01:44
However Healthscope says its current offer of 13.5% over three years is a competitive
01:50
and fair one that they have described as market leading.
01:55
As for overall impact on services, it may be the case that Stafford is actually better
01:59
than some days they typically see with the private health provider anticipating this
02:05
upcoming action and ensuring they say that all of their services will operate fully,
02:10
including elective surgeries.
02:13
Typically when strike action like this does take place, a number of elective surgeries
02:17
would be cancelled, however Healthscope said in a statement that wouldn't be the case.
02:23
And with the impasse between Healthscope and the union, it's scenes like these which have
02:27
seen nurses take to the streets here encouraging supporters to honk along as they beat their
02:33
drums and make their demands, well they could be fixtures of the future as well.
02:38
It could all end up being resolved at the Fair Work Commission, however for the time
02:43
being, the union says it wants negotiations to prevail.
02:47
Whatever wiggle room they might have up their sleeve in terms of compromises on pay for
02:51
example to get guarantees around staffing ratios remain to be seen.
Recommended
1:50
|
Up next
NSW Nurses and midwives walk off the job after pay negotiations fail
ABC NEWS (Australia)
9/11/2024
2:35
Nurses Strike at QA Hospital
The News, Portsmouth
2/6/2023
1:36
Delays at NSW hospitals expected at nurses, midwives walk off the job
ABC NEWS (Australia)
9/24/2024
1:56
NSW nurses and midwives strike over staff shortages
ABC NEWS (Australia)
7/17/2022
1:54
Nurses & midwives likely to strike at Liverpool Hospital
ABC NEWS (Australia)
1/26/2022
0:28
Lake Macquarie nurses and midwives strike
Newcastle Herald
7/29/2024
1:29
Southern NSW nurses and midwives rally Moruya July 24, 2024
Bay Post-Moruya Examiner
7/25/2024
2:38
Nurses strike again outside Worthing Hospital
SussexWorld
2/7/2023
0:25
Lake Macquarie Private Hospital nurses and midwives on strike
Newcastle Herald
8/22/2024
2:31
Public nurses around NSW strike for better pay and conditions | February 15, 2022 | ACM
Australian Community Media
2/15/2022
1:03
'Not going away': nurses, midwives demand wage increase
Australian Community Media
9/10/2024
2:35
Nurses take strike action in Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk News
1/18/2023
0:40
Nurses on strike outside Bognor Regis War Memorial Hospital
SussexWorld
1/18/2023
1:49
Thousands of nurses and midwives strike across NSW
ABC NEWS (Australia)
9/10/2024
0:31
Albury-Wodonga Private Hospital nurses strike
The Border Mail
8/21/2024
3:45
Nurses strike in Worthing
SussexWorld
1/19/2023
1:48
Nurses strike at Wigan Infirmary
Wigan Today
1/18/2023
1:04
Nurses at Royal Preston Hospital on strike
Lancashire Post
2/6/2023
1:53
Kettering General Hospital healthcare assistants strike for fair pay
Northants Telegraph
6/4/2024
1:20
Nurses and midwives rally in Bathurst
Western Advocate
2/15/2022
2:45
Why New York Nurses Went On Strike
TIME
1/11/2023
1:23
Nurses and midwives rally | July 25, 2024 | Illawarra Mercury
Illawarra Mercury
7/25/2024
1:27
NSW nurses to strike over low pay, days after police receive a historic wage offer
ABC NEWS (Australia)
11/12/2024
0:44
NHS nurses strike in snow outside hospital in Newcastle: ‘It’s not good enough’
The Independent
12/15/2022
3:05
Dolphin calf reunited with mum after rescue from fishing net
Australian Community Media
today