00:00It's great to be here at Baitland Hospital today to be announcing the latest tranche of safe staffing levels being rolled out across New South Wales. One of those hospitals is right here.
00:12We have thought for this hospital to be in public ownership for over a decade now to fully retain this public hospital to ensure that we do get the staffing that we need, to ensure that the conditions of all of the workers who are in there are bright.
00:27And this safe staffing levels is the latest announcement which is really great to see.
00:33What we'll see here is ensuring that patients get a better level of care but also that the nurses are able to deliver that care in a better way.
00:42We know that our nurses are really hard working healthcare workers. They pick up the slack of everybody and they have been working so hard, so incredibly hard.
00:53When this hospital first relocated to this site back in 2022, it was massively understaffed.
01:00We have increased some staffing in this time but to bring it up to safe staffing levels is something that I'm really excited about.
01:08We know that it's really hard for these people who have been working so hard for so long to trust the process.
01:15Because we sat there, we stood there in 2023, Ryan Park and I, we said we would deliver safe staffing levels here.
01:23It has taken some time to get there but we are committed to the process of recruitment and ensuring that people get to work safely.
01:30That they get to deliver a level of service to patients that saves lives and improves people's health and really just ensures that our hospital sisters are operating the best they can.
01:39We do welcome the choice for Maitland Hospital to be included in the safe staffing rollout.
01:47I do, in a way, count it as a union win because it is something that we have fought for for a very long time.
01:56I was thinking yesterday, it was only 15 years ago, I was up the hill at John Hunter saying we need one to three in ED.
02:02We need one to four on the floor. Mums matter and babies count.
02:06At the moment where we're up to with safe staffing, it's just a one for three in ED.
02:12So we've still got a long way to go.
02:16And I think the biggest key message we want for the government is that we really need fair pay and equal pay.
02:25We need to attract people into our positions.
02:28At the moment people can go work at the nursing home down the road for $5 an hour more.
02:33And it is a very hard slog.
02:36We actually have a very junior ED with a lot of year ones coming, which is a standard practice and definitely the best practice in our ED.
