Health reform — from talk to action
Published: 6 April 2009
Currently there are a number of significant (and competing) reform agendas under way that will impact on nurses and midwives.
Given the extent and pace of reform there is great potential for action (or inaction) in one of these areas to have unintended consequences in another.
Our Union believes that all of the issues need to be viewed carefully and holistically.
In particular, we have waited a long time for the release in February of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) interim report A Healthier Future for All Australians and the Maternity Services Review report Improving Maternity Services in Australia.
Through the Maternity Services Review we should be somewhat closer to seeing positive reform realised. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has said the report and its recommendations will form the basis of a National Maternity Services Plan. Certainly there is much community interest in this vitally important area, as evidenced by the 900 plus submissions. We will all be closely monitoring the response from government—expectations for action are running extremely high.
The NHHRC process has a way to go and we have taken advantage of the opportunity to influence their final report to government due by June this year by providing feedback, during a consultation stage, on the many options for reform of our health system. Some of these options will have far reaching consequences for nurses and midwives, both as providers of health services and members of the community utilising these services. However, the nature of the possible changes extends well beyond the issues under consideration by the NHHRC.
Take for example the health workforce and in particular the area of most interest to us—sustaining and advancing the nursing and midwifery workforce into the future.
The regulation of the nursing and midwifery workforce, both industrially and professionally, is a critical issue for the QNU. We have made many submissions in recent years to various inquiries detailing our concerns and outlining action required to sustain the workforce.
To date we believe the NHHRC has not paid sufficient attention to the importance of the industrial relations framework for the health workforce and likewise we fear that the penny has not yet fully dropped in the IR reform processes about how IR reform can and does have significant consequences in the health reform space.
But making submissions to reform processes is not enough in itself. We also have to make the case publicly for the need for action and the consequences of inaction. This is why we last year launched the Nurses. For you. For life. campaign. This campaign aims to garner community, employer and political support to address the worsening nursing and midwifery shortages and subsequently the impact this is having on the delivery of quality health and aged care services. While we identify the problems we also pose potential solutions. Nurses and midwives want to see action around this campaign and we will continue to actively monitor and contribute to reform agenda debates and processes to hopefully see our campaign objectives turn into reality.
Significantly, some action is occurring around the long overdue expansion of the role of nurses and midwives in Queensland. In the lead up to the State election Premier Anna Bligh announced her government would increase the number of Nurse Practitioners in Emergency Departments, implement nurse initiated discharge in Queensland Health and expand Maternity Services, such as in Toowoomba. The QNU will work hard with the government to ensure these and other initiatives that advance nursing and midwifery are promptly implemented.
We will also continue to set clear objectives that advance our interests and values and make clear to policy and decision makers the complexity and challenges confronting nurses and midwives in their daily working lives. This is a never ending task I know, but working together to achieve the evolving shared goals is the job of a union.
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