Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation NT Branch Secretary Cath Hatcher

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Katie Woolf spoke with Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation NT Branch Secretary Cath Hatcher · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've been discussing this morning the situation out at Howard
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Springs and the staffing of the facility out there at
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Howard Springs, the National Center or the Center for National Resilience.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: The aim had been to recruit four hundred staff. Now
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the Health Minister Natasha Fhiles had confirmed on the show
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: earlier in the week that that number was at seventy.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I am assuming that it is going to be going up,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: but the recruitment of that facility is certainly something that
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: should be and is no doubt high on the agenda
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: for the government. Now joining us on the line to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about that and plenty of
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: other things is the Australian Nursing and Midwiffree Federation NT
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Branch Secretary Cath Hatcha.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Cath, good mate, Sorry, good morning.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Great to have you on the show with us this morning. Cath.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: As I mentioned, we've been talking a bit about the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: staffing out at Howard Springs and that recruitment of well
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: several hundred staff. The Health Minister confirmed earlier in the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: week it was currently sitting at a round seventy. How
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: critical is it that we make sure that we get
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the number of staff required out there.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Would be very detrimental because the anti government are looking
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: at increasing the numbers from eight hundred and fifty international
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: arrivals from to two thousand international arrivals per fortnite. So
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: you need that staff number to cater not just for
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: nursing staff, but for all that entails to look after
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: those people in quarantine.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on, and as you've pointed out there,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: it's not just nursing staff, but it is stff A
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: staff across a number of different areas CAAVO just taking
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a look more closely at the nursing staff. I mean,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: when you're looking at numbers like two thousand, how many
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: nursing staff would you need out there? Sort of as
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a matter of urgency.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: To cater for those numbers, which the Health Minister advised
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: me about six weeks ago that when they reached the
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: two thousand numbers to be quarantined, they'd need about one
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: hundred nursing staff out of that four hundred and fifty
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: staff that they are advertising for. I'm not sure if
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: they're going to get those numbers. I hope so. But
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: all areas in Australia are having major issues with recruiting
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: and retaining staff because all the staff that normally would
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: sit in hospitals and clinics are now being diversified into
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  Speaker 2: other areas like vaccine research, calling, phone calls, testing, and
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: vaccine giving. So that's making the numbers on the ground
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: giving to our community people less.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Kas. Do we need to be offering some kind of
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: incentive or something to really tried to get those nursing
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: staff to come to the territory.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was asked this question last night and I said, yes,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I think there should be an incentive. But thinking about
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: that since last night, there's probably quite an incentive just
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: within working within the quarantine system, which is unique. We
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: haven't had as an opportunity for a nurse to work
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: in those types of facilities before, so to apply for
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: a position and work in the quarantine facility would be
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: a very good for your CV as a nurse. So
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: they may not need to have that incentive, but I
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: think other areas around the Northern Territory to retain, recruit
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: and retain staff, I think we do need some incentive,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: whether it be a money upfront money incentive or for
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: them to have their Sorry, can't remove all money, you know,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: everything paid for for their moving from interstate or overseas.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I think they need to have some help there.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And Cass do you reckon when it comes to finding accommodation?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Is that going to be something that could potentially be
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a difficult thing or a difficulty added to trying to
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: lure nurses to the territory.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Yes, we do have accommodation on both campuses. They're athere
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Springs and in Darwin. Yeah, that is not a huge
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: numbers of accommodation, but you've probably know yourself that houses
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: are getting snapped up quickly and units for rent and
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: for buying within Darwin particularly, so yes, it could potentially
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: be an accommodation issue.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, kas I know that at the moment as well.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: In addition to you know to obviously trying to staff
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the Howard Springs facility, there's always the issue of staffing
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: at our various hospitals around the territory as well, and
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: some nurses the last time you and I caught up
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: were doing double shifts and having to sort of work
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: extra hours in order to fill some of those spots.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: How are things going at the moment, More broadly, in a.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Couple of areas within Royal Darwin Hospital that has got better, Yeah,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: but there are still a couple of areas that are
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: still doing extra shifts over time shifts, double shifts and
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: therefore getting fatigued and tired and also taking sick leaves
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: as a result of all that extra stress. But also
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: the second wave of COVID vaccines have been happening recently
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: and they've also had some fluy type symptoms, nothing bad,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: but some symptoms from having that second vaccine which has
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: made them have some sick leaves as well, which has
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: put more strain back in some of the areas within
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: the Ryal Darwin Hospital.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And do you reckon that we're going to see is
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: there going to be much of a strain or is
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: there going to be much of an impact? Do you
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: think we'll have many of our nurses that are currently
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: working at our major hospitals and other facilities go across
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: to work at Howard Springs and will that have much
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of an impact?
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  Speaker 2: The Health Minister assured me that they would not target
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: those already working clinically within the territory to move across
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: to the Howard Springs facility. But that's you know, if
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: you were a nurse already currently working in the territory
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: want to take up that role. There's no reason why
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  Speaker 2: people can't apply for those positions, but they are trying
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: to target from interstate and overseas to fulfill those positions.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: And kas we know that there is a merger at
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the moment, as I understand at top end health and
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the other areas of health merging. Is that I mean,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: is that having much of an impact when it comes
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: to the conditions and terms of contracts for our nurses.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: At the moment the Better Together program, which is what
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: they're calling the Department of Helter calling it, they're still
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: in the early stages of consulting with key stakeholders, so
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: a lot of those that are working on the ground
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: in nursing and midw free wouldn't have any impact or
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: much knowledge of what's going on, but they will hopefully
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: around the July first when it does come into reality.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's going to be a huge change
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: within the health system on the ground running, but there
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: will be some managerial change. And I know that the
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Opposition leader, Bill Yan was saying over this past few
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: days that he thought that there would be some issues
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: from Tenant Creek and other springs areas and getting policy
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: change or getting recruitment retention or getting any decisions made
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: within those areas of Central Australia needing to wait for
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: a decision through the top end health service alls from
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Dawin specifically. I don't think that there will be an
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: issue because they're dividing up the territory into five different
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: areas and they all have their key areas on all
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: levels and making decisions within those areas and then feeding
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: back to the Chief Executive Officer or the chief Chief
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Operating officer for the territory.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, well that's good to hear. Kath Hatcher, Australian Nursing
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: and mid We're free NT Branch Secretary. Always good to catch.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Up with you.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: You're very welcome, Katie.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you