Wednesday, 27 November 2024

 Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:50): (1322) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Health, and it relates to the state government’s penny pinching impacting on the careers of graduate nurses. I know my colleague Ms Crozier brought this to the attention of the house last night in her adjournment debate, but this also impacts constituents from my Eastern Victoria Region. Indeed a wonderful young constituent has for the past three years been studying to become a nurse, looking forward to their graduate year at the Alfred hospital. We know that the Alfred hospital has got an exemplary reputation as being a first-class hospital, and it was her first choice in terms of getting that clinical experience and mentoring and then taking that experience back into regional Victoria. The graduate year for nurses should be offered at an FTE of 0.8 – or four days a week, as we call it. I remember my son when he was doing his nursing degree certainly had that 0.8, but my constituent is one of those 280 nurses that felt shocked after receiving an email advising them that their timeframe had been cut to 0.6 FTE, or six shifts a fortnight. They stress very much that they will not be receiving those learning opportunities they deserve but also that they have an added financial disadvantage to the tune of around $17,000 a year with this loss of time.

This young regional Victorian is now incredibly concerned about how she will actually cope financially during a cost-of-living crisis on a part-time graduate nursing wage. Of course if you live in the country and then come to the city to work, you need to be able to have accommodation there. It is not something that you can go home from and down to very easily. They are certainly concerned about what this compromised budget cut from the hospital, via the government, is going to create.

We know that the Alfred has had to penny pinch over time. It sent out a memo to all staff reminding them to turn off the lights because their budget was tight. Indeed the hospital also said:

We will have to stop things we have been able to do, and there will be less of us to do it … These are not easy decisions to make.

Now, we can all appreciate that. This is a horrible, compromising position that this Labor government is putting hospitals in, cutting money and cutting funding. I am asking the minister to explain to my constituent and to those other 280 nurses what she is going to do in order to be able to offer the continued service at 0.8 for the hospital and to provide hospitals with sufficient funding so that they are not having to turn the lights out unnecessarily or cut services in their wonderful hospitals.