Albury nurses strike again, march for better pay and conditions

About 100 local union members joined the statewide strike on Thursday morning to march from QEII square to Member for Albury Justin Clancy's office.

The nurses called for shift by shift nurse to patient ratios and a minimum 2.5 per cent wage increase, just six weeks after their last strike and days after Albury Wodonga Health called its second Code Yellow this month.

Albury nurse Denise Fisher said the crisis lack of staff meant patients weren't able to receive adequate care.

"I've never wished myself to be older, I want to get out, I've never been so disheartened," she said.

"I don't know how long we can do this, people's lives are at risk.

"Albury has its own issues, we do need a new hospital, but I don't know how we're going to staff it with the amount of nurses leaving."

LISTEN TO THEIR SPEECHES:

Speaking to the gathering in QEII Square after finishing a 12 hour night shift, nurse Andrea Cronk said NSW Health employed nurses on the Border were leaving to work for the Victorian Government.

"It's very easy for a nurse in the Albury-Wodonga region to just go across the border to Wodonga," she said.

"There's better pay over there, there's better ratios over there and that is really tempting for someone who is burnt out, exhausted and stressed.

"As a result we're having our experienced nurses leave and move on to bigger and better places and what's left are the junior staff; we're seeing new grads working night shift with minimal support, we're seeing them working doubles, we're seeing junior staff in their first two to three years being in charge on an entire ward overnight and in the evenings and not actually having a really good hierarchy to go up when they don't know certain procedures, people are thrown in without orientation, we're just seeing completely lacking shifts where the skill mixes are poor.

"Mistakes are being made because there's just not the skill needed to keep safety a priority, we're seeing already the medication errors, we're seeing already the cracks in our ability to cope."

NSW Health said it had engaged in talks with the union and remained committed to reaching a resolution.

Ms Fisher asked the Albury community to stand behind its nurses and hear their issues.

"Write to the government, tell Mr Clancy (member for Albury Justin Clancy) when you see him next that you support nurses, tell him to go to Mr Perrottet (NSW premier Dominic Perrottet) and tell him we need help," she said.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Member for Albury Justin Clancy said he was seeking answers on behalf of his electorate.

"Nurses and midwives deserve fair pay and, particularly as seen over the last two years, steps to maintain wellbeing in a most difficult time," he said.

"I acknowledge that recent increases in remuneration for nurses in the public system have not resolved the pay issue.

"While much of the current campaign is of a general or ongoing nature, what concerns me most deeply is the impact of the pandemic on the wonderful nurses who staff our regional facilities.

"These are tight-knit teams who work very well together, but the pandemic with its isolation rules, furloughing of staff, overtime demands and all the other pressures of working as professionals in remote or rural areas, has hit particularly hard.

"Recruitment has always been challenging. This is an issue I am passionate about and will be taking further to government, particularly through my role as Parliamentary Secretary for Health."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: