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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-11 Daily Xml
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Nurse Safety

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:28): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding the safety of nurses.

Leave granted.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: The government has defended their substantial delay in implementing the 10-point plan to address workplace violence, proposed for adoption by the ANMF, as being somehow unique to Victoria and requiring tailoring to South Australia. The 10 points are as follows:

Improve security: develop adequate baseline standards for security and fund healthcare organisations to comply.

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: That sounds reasonable, for SA as well.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: Crazy. The others are:

Identify risk to staff and others: identifying the risk of a patient or others being aggressive or violent towards staff must be part of the clinical pre-admission or admission procedures throughout the patient's stay.

Include family in the development of the patient care plans.

Report, investigate and act: changing a culture of not reporting violent incidents by building trust.

Prevent violence throughout the workplace design.

Provide education and training to staff.

Integrate legislation, policies and procedures.

Provide post-incident support.

Apply an antiviolence approach across all health disciplines.

Empower staff to expect a safe workplace.

My question to the minister is: which of these 10 points does the minister oppose and which does he think are not applicable to South Australia?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:30): I thank the honourable member for her question. Let me start with where the ANMF and this government are in complete unison, and that is in total repudiation of violence in our health facilities. Our number one priority is to provide a safe environment for our staff, patients and their families. We agree with the nurses union that violence against nurses is inexcusable, and we will continue to work with them to improve safety.

I also do not want to be seen to be critical of the Victorian plan. Only in recent days I spoke to Victorian hospital management who spoke positively about the work being done in Victoria. We are keen to take the best elements of that plan and apply it in the South Australian context. However, I do disagree with the honourable member's implication that the ANMF plan is a simple 10-point plan. The Victorian ANMF plan is actually pages and pages of very significant recommendations. It has been characterised to me that it probably has more like 40 points, rather than 10. I thank the honourable member for her summary but I think that it understates the complexity of the Victorian document.

We will continue to work through it with both our nurses' leadership and our other management to make sure that we provide a safe workplace for staff, and a safe and therapeutic environment for patients and those who care for them.

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