After news of the first SA nurse to test positive for COVID-19, The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation have once again called for out of work casual nursing employees to be re-employed and upskilled in preparation for increase of more medical staff cases.
Following massive cuts in elective surgery across both public and private hospitals, beds lie temporarily unused ahead of the anticipated surge associated with COVID-19.
Due to this, South Australian nurses have seen their hours cut and their income evaporated.
They also ask for the Workers’ Compensation Act to be urgently changed so that the burden of proof is reversed in the cases of health workforce who contract COVID-19, with the assumption that is has occurred in the course of their employment and should be covered by Workers Compensation laws.
ANMF’s SA Branch CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM says that unlike workers in other industries whose jobs have been lost, these nurses will not qualify for government income subsidies.
Emergency departments have experienced a reduction in presentations due to people choosing to avoid hospitals and stay at home.
“Whilst this reduction in activity is exactly what is needed at the moment, the unintended consequence is that hundreds of nurses, employed as casual and agency staff, are no longer receiving regular, if any, hours of work,’’ Ms Dabars says.
“We are calling on the State and Commonwealth Governments to get behind these vital health care staff, meet the cost of their wages. Their skills need to be protected and used wisely to prepare for the coming onslaught while demand is artificially low.’’
This call has resurfaced after SA Health confirmed an intensive care unit nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital who has been working with COVID-19 patients tested positive for the virus today.
The nurse, who is in her twenties, became mildly symptomatic late last week, with a positive test result returned yesterday.
More to come.
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