The Nurses and Midwives Association has accepted an offer of a three percent increase to call-off rolling strike action, pending further talks and industrial arbitration.

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The increase would be backdated to the beginning of July.

However, at the time of writing, there had been no response from Ramsay Health Care, which operates Baringa.

Last Thursday, 26 September, local nurses and midwives criticised the company for not putting staff and patients before their profits.

Forty members of the NSWNMA working at Baringa Private Hospital stood on the corner of the Pacific Highway and Bray Street to draw attention to their pay plight as part of the statewide strike action.

After eighteen months of negotiations, union members said they’d had enough of the country’s largest private hospital operator not valuing its dedicated nurses and midwives.

They called on Ramsay to deliver a pay and conditions offer that reflects cost of living increases, and includes a commitment to introduce nurse/midwife to patient ratios in all their NSW hospitals.

“The rally went really well,” Assistant Secretary NSWNMA Baringa Private Hospital Alison Bradshaw told the News Of The Area.

“We had 40 nurses standing together in protest against Ramsay, a corporate health giant.

“With some $900m dollars in profits, they continue to deny us a fair living wage and lifesaving ratios.”

The private hospital members of the NSWNMA have dropped their pay rise request from eighteen percent to sixteen percent over three years to try to get Ramsay to come to an agreement.

“While they continue to stall, our nurses, some on $30 an hour, still have to put food on the table and pay the rent,” Ms Bradshaw said.

“Our Ramsay colleagues in Queensland are paid up to fourteen percent more than us in NSW, doing the same job for the same employer.”

Members are concerned that nursing is a dying industry.

“Nurses are leaving the profession to either retire early or find other employment that offers fair and reasonable conditions and fair remuneration.

“As our older generation of nurses leave, they take with them their knowledge and their lifesaving skills.

“The current workforce is largely junior staff who require guidance and direction to keep both their patients and themselves safe.

“If there is no improvement in pay and conditions over both the private and public sectors, this already diminished workforce will become increasingly critical.”

Supporting the nurses and midwives, Coffs resident and passer-by Donnah* paid for coffees all round.

She said that seeing the nurses on strike made her think about all of her family’s emergency trips to hospital over the years and how the nurses were always there to help stitch and plaster them up as well as all the anaphylactic episodes, head injuries, kidney stones, pneumonia and strokes.

“I decided that although I could do nothing about their pay rise personally, I could thank them for their service and show our family’s support to our nurses by shouting them all a cup of coffee,” she said.

Zarraffa’s Coffee also showed their appreciation of the striking nurses and midwives by upsizing all 40 coffees.

By Andrea FERRARI