NSWNA for nurses, not quasi arm of ALP

Lamp, The, July, 2008 by Mark Lamb

Thank you, Brett Holmes, for your editorial in the last issue of The Lamp. I was beginning to wonder if the NSWNA was a quasi arm of the Labor Party of NSW and Australia. I had previously written a letter to accompany my annual subscription in December 2007 and Susan Pearce from NSWNA contacted me regarding a response to that letter.

In essence, my letter said I was under the impression that the NSWNA was peddling the wares of the Labor Party both at a state and national level, particularly in the recent State and Federal Election campaigns. It is heartening to see that you are indeed NOT pro Labor. Instead the NSWNA is FOR the nursing profession.

I applaud your efforts to secure a decent wages decision from the lemma Government. I note that the Federal Labor Party have 'tried to correct the alleged funding deficits in health from the Howard Government' you discuss in your editorial. It appears from the negotiations the lemma Government is NOT concerned about health and the state of the nursing profession at all. I work as a senior member of the nursing profession and the intense pressure from the Area Health Service and NSW Health to comply with 'unrealistic' demands to meet benchmark and activity targets in relation to clinical care and budget is getting worse as time goes by. We are constantly pressured to explain why we are spending over budget when we continually have more and more patients presenting in our Emergency Departments PLUS continuing to 'plough' through the elective surgery waiting lists while the wards are full of very sick people. We simply have 'cut and shaved' as much 'fat' off the system as we can and to suggest that we continue to do more and more with less and less resources is ridiculous.

As a senior member of the nursing profession it is very difficult to maintain any sort of enthusiasm given the current state of health and I am looking forward to the Garling enquiry outcomes. I just hope the outcomes do not mean more 'dumb' paperwork or more bureaucracy than we already have and seemingly senseless processes that slow up and cripple the working of the health care system even more than now.

Mark Lamb, RN, SSWAHS