More than a thousand nursing graduates and students have received offers under Labor’s NSW Tertiary Health Study Subsidy Program as part of state efforts to counter staff shortages.
The NSW Labor government on Sunday told media 473 new nursing students had been offered scholarships worth $4,000 per year while another 840 graduating nursing students had been offered $8,000 one-off payments after taking up NSW Health jobs.
The government said the NSW Health nursing workforce had expanded to a record 52,400 people, an increase of 2,100 workers compared to last year.
Meanwhile, 2,865 nurses have reportedly been recruited to regional and rural NSW over the past year as part of the government’s Rural Health Workforce Incentive Scheme.
Other measures the government said it was implementing included ‘safe staffing levels of nurses and midwives’ in hospital emergency departments; 1,112 temporary nurses offered permanent positions; a former wages cap scrapped; and ‘record pay increases’ for nurses, paramedics and other health workers.
Another 500 paramedics are promised for regional, rural and remote communities.
Health workers still choosing QLD over NSW, says Tweed Hospital nurse
The announcement comes as worker campaigns for increased pay and improved conditions continue.
Tweed Hospital based nurse James Rozorio emailed The Echo saying he’d started a group called #delayforfairpay.
The group was calling on members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives union to delay renewing their professional registrations in protest of what Mr Rozorio described as the NSW Labor Government’s poor treatment of the health workers.
The union represents almost 20% of the nursing and midwifery workforce for NSW Health, Mr Rozorio said.
‘Last year the NSW Government offered a take it or leave it 4% wage increase that did not cover inflations,’ the Tweed nurse said.
‘NSW Nurses and Midwives are 8-30% behind QLD in wages,’ he said, referring also to ‘poorer conditions’ with a combined effect of NSW workers leaving NSW Health for better pay and conditions over the border.
‘In my 6 years working at The Tweed Hospital I have witnessed an exodus of staff leaving for better pay and conditions in QLD,’ Mr Rozioro said.
The Northern NSW Local Health District was last year reported to be spending $400,000 per day on locum doctors and agency nurses.
Workers at the Tweed Hospital are today understood to be transferring patients across from the old site to the new hospital at Cudgen.
The new hospital is to officially replace the old hospital from tomorrow, with the government still advertising roles at the facility in recent weeks.
