THE Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare are auditing our beautiful new hospital as we seek a pass on accreditation.
As a member of the NSWNMA I can tell you everything is sparkling like bright new shoes; we have been practising the right things to say for months to impress the accreditors.
We will be assessed on eight standards of healthcare:
- Clinical governance (can we keep people safe)
- Partnering with consumers (do we include our community in decisions)
- Preventing and controlling health care infection (how many have we caused)
- Medication safety (are we making errors)
- Comprehensive care (how are we are giving the full experience of care for complex patients i.e. falls prevention, end of life care, pressure injuries)
- Communicating for safety (do we use the right systems to prevent and escalate patient care needs)
- Blood management (have we all done the training to administer safely)
- Recognising and responding to acute deterioration (we only get audited on those we documented)
To the best of my knowledge, the accreditors don't ask what impact poor staffing has on any of the outcomes.
They will never know the real number of issues because we don't have time to report them all.
I think we are just a shiny button on an old coat.
Our nurses and midwives are on their knees with exhaustion and fear for their registrations.
Kathy Chapman, NSWNMA Assistant Secretary Maitland Branch
Integrity in government key
IF we wise up, Australia can realise its potential to become a world superstar on development and manufacture of renewables, and play our part in avoiding global catastrophe.
If the Morrison government is returned next week, then Morrison, Joyce, Pitt, Canavan regain the reins of power. I'll vote this week. I'll vote for politicians who believe that we have a future in which we become, once again, a nation of resourceful people who build things, who add value.
I'll vote for those politicians who are bright enough to see that we have the classic win-win opportunity available to us - we can save this planet and we can do it by creating new opportunities instead of sinking all that we've valued into a dying, destructive industry. I'll vote for integrity too because, not surprisingly, those politicians who value the futures of our children, who value our environment are also those who value real integrity in government.
Rick Frost, Mallabula
Take teachers' action seriously
FROM past NSW Teachers Federation leaders such as Sam Lewis, Ivan Lancaster, Max Taylor to the current Angelo Gavrielatos and the many leaders in between, representing the teaching profession, battling the likes of past education ministers as Terry Metherall, Rodney Cavalier et al, and the current Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell, on the functioning of state government schools and the expectations of teachers is ongoing.
Direct action has become the last resort norm for a "fair go" on salary and working conditions for these now tertiary-trained graduate teachers, with teachers earning about 83 per cent of the average graduate salary, according to the Grattan Institute.
Disruptive direct action has at no time been taken lightly by the Federation; the majority of outcomes being sympathetic to the activities. The previous "direct action" happened at the end of last term last year when pupil assessments had been finalised, and disruption minimal.
Current requirements from Minister Mitchell are considered excessive. Teachers find themselves spending "more time documenting the lesson than preparing the lesson", ("Teachers skip school to strike for pay rise", Herald, 5/5).
Viability of lessons is in their preparation, presentation, evaluation and follow-up as necessary.
School records and teacher follow-up recordings have always accounted for reference. Useless recording is disillusioning of poor practical usage above that already teacher acquired.
Bob Allen, Hawks Nest
Comments an indictment on PM
WITH her latest comments, Katherine Deves confirms what has been clear all along.
She has used the issue of sport as a vehicle to attack the whole practice of gender reassignment and trans people generally. But more importantly, we have a prime minister who is willing to piggyback such sentiments for political purposes, in the process making factual gaffe after gaffe.
As always, he is impervious to correction - he ploughs on, making the act of questioning him an exercise in futility; the rhetorical equivalent of avoiding an awkward conversation by starting up a leaf-blower.
If Morrison thinks this issue is of such "concern" to Australians, why has he completely ignored it until now?
Some studies have shown that around 40 per cent of transgender people have attempted suicide at some point in their lives.
They are more likely to experience discrimination in employment, housing and healthcare. Many are verbally and physically victimised from a young age.
Yet Morrison doesn't hesitate to use them as political football.
This is an indictment not just of Morrison, but of the government he leads, and the party to which he belongs. Many of them may despise him, but they also own him.
A fish may stink from the head, but that's a sure sign the whole thing is rotten.
Michael Hinchey, New Lambton
Pollies giving us nightmares
WELL, what a shemozzle.
Once again the Australian people have been placed between a rock and a hard place with the up and coming federal election.
What a bunch of spoiled children we have to choose from. One should not say that of course, it is an insult to children everywhere.
Never before in the field of Australian politics have we had such a bunch of careless whingers to pick from. When will we get some pollies who know what it is to be a leader? Someone who will build upon the good work of previous governments and reform policies which do not work from either side and stop tearing down polices just because it comes from the other side.
Indeed, when will these people all work together in a united and co-operative fashion and work for the benefit of all Australian beings instead of the multinationals.
Goodness me people, Labor and Liberals are two sides of the same coin. If one tossed 'em in a game of two up, that coin would land on its edge and roll into the gutter, which is precisely where they are taking this country.
Australia is an incredibly wealthy country so why can so many Aussies not afford to live here? Wake up the lot of you, you're giving the people nightmares.
Nigel Williams, Redhead
SHORT TAKES
IN her letterbox flyer, Liberal candidate for Paterson, Brooke Vitnell, claims her party has delivered record investment in education. Perhaps so, but not for public education where it's desperately needed. In 2017 Morrison delivered a $14 billion cut to public schools and in the 2022 budget, should they be re-elected, the LNP has already pledged $2.6 billion for private schools while cutting $559 million from public school kids. The LNP have a history with funnelling our taxpayer dollars into private enterprises. Anyone who cares for public education, works in public education or has children there should consider this before voting.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
OUR Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is constantly saying that the coming federal government election is all about jobs and the economy and yet the go slow policies of the federal Coalition government, in relation to countering climate change and further developing the attributes of renewable energy, have been constant inhibitors to growth in jobs and the economy for many years. Urgent action is required, and well overdue, in relation to countering climate change and further developing renewable energy. The coming federal government election provides an opportunity to make the required actions take place.
Brian Measday, Myrtle Bank
DARRYL Tuckwell, (Short Takes, 6/5), what's even worse is that Liberal MP Ken Wyatt also says that he himself needs a pay rise, despite already being on $426,000 a year. Apparently Wyatt has said he should get the pay rise because he works hard. Well, so do aged care workers on $24 an hour, some of whom struggle to pay for food or rent. If there was a list of people deserving of a pay rise, I would put aged care workers somewhere towards the top, and Mr Wyatt somewhere towards the bottom.
Adz Carter, Newcastle
IT took Australian voters 10 years to figure out former PM John Howard, let's hope voters have honed their skills and take less than six years to figure out Scott Morrison and give him the same treatment.
Darryl Tuckwell, Eleebana
CARL Stevenson criticises private plans for national-scale renewables on the basis they might require taxpayer subsidies, ("Grand plan, but is it achievable?", Letters, 6/5). But he seems OK with gas and coal generators being 100 per cent publicly funded. His criticism also ignores the ability of long storage to firm up intermittent renewables. Thankfully he omitted the old 'baseload' myth.
Michael Gormly, Islington
GOOD on Basketball Australia for expelling Liz Cambage.
