Libs take action to support nurses
Date:
Fri, 03/08/2012
Spokesperson:
SA Shadow Minister for Health & Ageing, Shadow Minister for Mental Health, Shadow Minister for Substance Abuse, Martin Hamilton-Smith MP
Shadow Minister for Health Martin Hamilton-Smith will draft private member’s legislation for the Spring session of Parliament to increase penalties against violent offenders who attack clinical staff in hospitals.
Mr Hamilton-Smith will tell today’s Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) Annual Delegates Conference that:
- “When Parliament resumes after the winter recess I will be bringing a private member’s bill forward to increase penalties against violent offenders in hospitals. I recognise that tougher penalties won’t necessarily get results for some patients, particularly substance abuse patients and others. But we must do more. I will not be waiting for the government to act if they don’t, we will.”
Mr Hamilton-Smith also foreshadowed that in the first week of a Liberal government if elected in 2014 as Minister for Health he would:
- “Commission a full report into the health workforce in SA to dissect national research in order to determine our need for doctors, nurses and midwives in the medium to long term and to determine how we are going to train and employ the numbers we need, and
- “Commission an internal investigation into hospital violence with a view to establishing the facts and determining pathways forward to prevent and respond to violence.”
“National research shows that Australia is facing a shortfall of 109,490 nurses by 2025. The nurses’ imbalance in SA must be quantified and new workforce plans developed.
“The Labor government has been cagey and secretive about the full extent of violence against clinical staff in our hospitals with drip-fed statistics and qualified information. The facts must be established and comprehensive strategies developed to fix the problem.
“At the conference today I will also address other major concerns for nurses. Labor’s financial mismanagement has now resulted in plans to cut hospital beds, to cut jobs and to attack staff ratios and workplace arrangements,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.
Contact: Martin Hamilton-Smith 0408 854 707
