Canberra nurses will hold a rally to push for a bonus payment and for the ACT government to focus on their health and wellbeing, as healthcare workers continue to face the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This comes after the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation ACT called for the territory government to match bonus payments received by their NSW counterparts in recognition of their work on the frontline of the COVID response.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet in June announced a one-off recognition payment of $3000 for NSW Health workers with Victoria following suit for all public health services and ambulance staff later that month.
The ACT government has knocked back the proposal for staff recognition payments opting to focus on wage increases over the long term.
As part of the nurse and midwives union's push for recognition, nurses plan to protest outside Canberra Hospital from 4pm on Friday.
A recent survey conducted by the union found 74 per cent of public sector respondents had considered leaving their job in the past year.
In response the union is calling for the ACT government to invest in a recovery plan for workers, with a focus on health and wellbeing as well as fixing culture issues within the public health sector.
ACT branch union secretary Matthew Daniel said the rally would be the first of many aimed at improving conditions for workers across the territory.
"Nurses, midwives and assistants-in-nursing in the public sector are fed-up with the lack of recognition they have received, they are exhausted and burnt out," he said in a statement.
This comes after months of shortages in hospitals and aged care across the country as an expected surge in Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 cases loom over an already stretched health system.
Predictions of up to 3000 cases per day in the ACT region alone are expected to add further strain despite extended eligibility for a fourth COVID-19 dose. The extra dose aims to help relieve demand on Australia's hospital systems.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday said Labor had increased hospital funding as part of a continued 45-50 split between federal and state and territory governments.
"What we have done is extend hospital funding by some $890 million to the states and territories. We'll continue to engage with state and territories. What we have done is to get out there and run and increase, ramp-up the advertising campaign to make sure that people can get their booster shots," he told Today.
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Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said the additional funding for state hospital systems was due to "the pressure that hospitals are under".
"Our focus is very much on stopping people getting severely unwell and particularly progressing to hospital or worse," he told 2GB on Thursday.
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