Locums, agency staff and volunteers are the face of public hospital health care in the NSW Northern Rivers region in 2023-2024

 

Clarence Valley independent, 13 December 2023:

Staff shortages amongst doctors, nurses, and specialists on the north coast has seen the Northern NSW Local Health District spend $148 million in the 2022-2023 financial year on agency staff.....

In July 2023, The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that NSW Health was spending about $1 billion annually on temporary health workers, with $148 million spent on locum doctors who are paid up to $4000 a day, while working in under resourced regional hospitals.

Northern NSW Local Health District NNSWLHD Chief Executive, Tracey Maisey said the past few years have been challenging, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, floods and bushfire emergencies.

“Despite these challenges our staff have succeeded in delivering high quality and positive outcomes of care,” she said.

“When vacancies exist, NNSWLHD engages agency medical and nursing staff to supplement the permanent workforce across the District.

“The 2022 floods had a significant impact on local communities and our local workforce, and agency staff played an important role in supporting our services throughout this period.

“In the 2022-23 financial year, the costs associated with our agency workforce totalled $148 million.”

The $148 million spent in the 2022-23 financial year on locum staff equates to about 13 per-cent of the Northern NSW Local Health District NNSWLHD annual budget, with more than $68 million paid in wages and $16 million spent on accommodation for these staff.....

Recruitment of staff is ongoing.

“An overseas nursing recruitment program conducted earlier in 2023 is bolstering local nurse numbers, with the first of 60 new nurses already settling into their roles at hospitals across the District,” Ms Maisey said.

“In partnership with our staff and expert external support we have developed a comprehensive recruitment campaign, and there are recruitment and retention incentives for critical roles.

“We are supporting the retention of existing staff by assisting eligible staff on temporary contracts to transition to permanent employment and are working with our facilities to support them to improve internal recruitment processes and timeframes.

“We have also increased our new graduate nursing numbers, as well as offering permanent positions rather than traditional fixed term contracts.”

The Northern NSW Local Health District board has also looked at the issue of creating a volunteer arm in its service provision and in November 2023 issued a media release which stated in part:

Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWLHD) is calling for community members to join the Healthcare Helpers volunteer program, with a range of roles available in health facilities for 2024.

Applications are now open for volunteer roles supporting patients, visitors and healthcare staff in facilities in Tweed, Nimbin, Ballina, Lismore, Maclean, Grafton, Bonalbo, Urbenville and Kyogle.

NNSWLHD Volunteering and Fundraising Manager, Claire Quince said the volunteers support health staff and improve the experiences of patients and visitors.

“After welcoming 30 new Healthcare Helpers to Lismore, Grafton and Maclean Hospitals in June this year, we are now expanding the program to the District’s other health facilities,” Ms Quince said.

“In addition to meet and greet roles in hospital public areas, we are introducing companion volunteers to provide social support to patients undergoing surgical procedures, cancer treatment and dialysis rehabilitation, as well as new mothers in the maternity ward.

“Our residential aged care facilities at our Multi-Purpose Services are also recruiting companion volunteers to provide social support and assist with outings for aged care residents.”

Largest superannuation fund dedicated to Australia's health and community services sector calls for proposed legislated Objective of Super to "include a commitment to close the gender super gap to ensure Australia’s retirement system does not entrench inequity".

According to the 2021 Census, more Northern Rivers Region residents worked in health care and social assistance than any other industry. A total of 22,893 people to be exact - of which 17,582 were women.

It is likely that more than a few belong to this industry union.

HESTA CEO Debby Blakey

Super objective must focus on eliminating gender super gap: HESTA

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HESTA

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31 March 2023

HESTA has called for the objective of super to include a commitment to close the gender super gap to ensure Australia’s retirement system does not entrench inequity and that future reforms deliver better outcomes for women and low-income earners.

In its submission to the Federal Government’s consultation on legislating the objective of super, the $70 billion industry super fund strongly supported the proposed wording of the objective. With almost 80% of HESTA members women, the Fund has called for the explanatory materials to the legislation in relation to ‘equity’ to clearly reference the elimination of the gender super gap and the need to avoid entrenching or creating inequity for women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and those on low incomes.

HESTA CEO Debby Blakey said clarifying the objective in this way could help keep future super reform focused on tackling the structural inequities that prevented women from receiving the full benefits of super.

“HESTA strongly supports the need to enshrine in law an objective of super that focuses on achieving dignity and equity in retirement, and this goes hand in hand with closing the gender super gap,” Ms Blakey said.

“Our super system is world class, but its design continues to disadvantage certain groups, including women, many of whom continue to experience an intolerable level of economic insecurity in retirement.

“Crystallising the legislative objective of super to include eliminating the gender super gap and avoiding further inequity will help ensure future reforms address super’s gender blind spot and make our retirement system fairer for all Australians.”

HESTA’s submission recommends implementing a Gender Superannuation Impact Assessment to evaluate how future reform contributes to eliminating the gender super gap as well as to assess Australia’s progress in this respect. The Fund has also called for ‘dignified retirement’ in the explanatory materials to refer to a retirement that promotes financial security and wellbeing.

The gender super gap remains a significant issue, with factors such as the gender pay gap and career interruptions due to caring responsibilities causing Australian women to still retire on average with around a third less super than men.1

HESTA has long advocated for measures to help close the gender super gap, including paying super on the Commonwealth Parental Leave Pay scheme and the introduction of a super “carer credit” for unpaid parental leave. The Fund has also sought reform to the Low Income Super Tax Offset and other tax concessions to improve equity and fairness in the super system.

“As a priority, we want to see super paid to workers taking paid leave to care for children because this will help make our retirement system fairer for all Australians and take an important step forward in addressing the gender super gap,” Ms Blakey said.

“Unpaid caring work make an enormous difference to our economy and to the health and wellbeing of families. It’s time our super system recognised this important contribution.”

HESTA recommendations on legislating an objective of super

HESTA recommends that:

1. The explanatory materials to the legislation should provide further definitional context to the concept of a “dignified retirement”, being one which promotes “financial security and wellbeing in retirement” through a standard of living that:

• is supported by retirement income sufficiently above the Age Pension (or other government support);

• supports a person’s ability to economically and socially participate in the community; and

• is consistent with community expectations.

2. The explanatory materials to the legislation in relation to “equity” should clarify the importance of promoting workforce and community participation and ensuring superannuation system settings do not entrench or create inequitable outcomes, including for women, low-income earners and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

3. The explanatory materials to the legislation in relation to “equity” should expressly include the objective to eliminate the gender superannuation gap, so that women fully benefit from our superannuation system.

4. Robust additional accountability mechanisms are enacted, to ensure future superannuation policy changes are properly judged against their compliance with the objective, and there is periodic review of the performance of the system against the objective of superannuation. This should include a “Gender Superannuation Impact Assessment” being conducted, both when new policies are proposed and periodically, to measure progress towards eliminating the gender superannuation gap.

ENDS

[1] KPMG (2021). The Gender Superannuation Gap – addressing the options.

About HESTA

HESTA is the largest superannuation fund dedicated to Australia’s health and community services sector. An industry fund that’s run only to benefit members, HESTA now has more than one million members (around 80% of whom are women) and manages close to $70 billion in assets invested around the world.