The Greens party is calling for immediate bonuses of $5000 to be paid to all nurses and paramedics working in the NSW public health system as part of a range of incentives to stop them deserting the system during the latest wave of the pandemic.
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The party also proposes a ''pandemic payment' of at least $60 per shift under a NurseKeeper campaign launched this week in response to what it says is the alarming number of exhausted and burnt-out nurses and paramedics leaving their profession in recent weeks.
The call comes after the Illawarra delegate for the Health Services Union's ambulance division said the paramedics were being push to the limit and secretary of the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association's Wollongong Hospital branch, Genevieve Stone said hospitals are on the brink of collapse.
The Greens have written to NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet asking him to immediately introduce the NurseKeeper program and wants the government to urgently introduce a pandemic payment and bonuses for nurses and paramedics.
"Our public hospitals are in a state of emergency and it's not because of the number of patients, it's because there's not enough nurses to care for them," said Greens MP and the party's health spokesperson Cate Faehrmann.
"Senior health staff are quitting in droves and thousands of nurses have been furloughed due to COVID."
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"If the government does not act fast to retain nurses and paramedics then mass resignations could see our whole healthcare system come undone.
"We are calling on the NSW government to immediately introduce NurseKeeper, a plan to retain and reward nurses and paramedics during this emergency."
The plan includes an immediate bonus of $5000 to all nurses and paramedics working in the NSW public health system as an incentive to stay, and a ''pandemic payment' of at least $60 each shift.
The Greens also propose a further $5000 be paid a year from now as an "additional retention measure and gesture of gratitude".
"This government has let this state slip into a completely avoidable public health disaster, allowing our public hospitals to become completely overrun and dysfunctional," Ms Faehrmann said.
"Nurses are working in horrific conditions, being pressured to work 18-hour shifts for days in a row, caring for more patients than they can handle."