|
|
 |
|
|
| Home | Ask Neale | Calendar | Links |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Clean Canberra HospitalsDate: 19 September 2007
Canberra Hospital cleaners will line up 41 buckets representing the number of cleaners that are needed to keep the hospital clean. The buckets will be displayed at a lunch time sausage sizzle to be held at the entrance to The Canberra Hospital (TCH) today in support of the cleaners. Responding to cuts in hospital cleaning hoursThe Sausage Sizzle is part of the Clean Hospitals Means Better Health campaign which commenced in March this year in response to cuts to cleaning hours at the Canberra Hospital.The hospital continues to grow and become busier and dirtier but there are fewer cleaners to keep it clean. Currently only 35 cleaners try to do the work of 41 cleaners. That means that there is nearly 50 hours of cleaning that should be undertaken each day that is not done despite the existing cleaners best efforts to deal with the excessive workload.
Union commissions independent investigation into cleaning workloadsThe LHMU Cleaners Union commissioned Professor Caple to undertake an investigation into cleaning workloads at TCH. The report has not been made public but only a few of its 13 recommendations have been implemented.Already over 450 wards assistants, doctors, nurses and members of patient's families have signed a petition in support of the cleaners in their attempts to improve cleaning standards.
ACT Health Minister, Katy Gallagher, is seeking a resolution.
Govt calls meeting to resolve issuesThe Minister has arranged a meeting between the LHMU Cleaners Union, the contractor and the hospital, scheduled for Monday 24th September to find a resolution to this lengthy and ongoing issue.The LHMU says that if the meeting fails to deal with the matter of adequate staffing the cleaners and the contractor will remain in conflict until the end of the contract in 2008.
No approved standards for public hospital cleaningIt has been revealed that the ACT Government, in contrast to both the NSW and Victorian Governments, does not have any approved standards for the cleaning of Canberra's public hospitals.In July 2006 the NSW health Department report the NSW Expert Group on Multiple resistant Organisms stated: "Cleaning standards are frequently identified as contributors to infection control problems in health care settings......" Unions wants Victorian Gvt public hospital cleaning standards for CanberraThe report recommends that the NSW Government adopt Victorian cleaning standards, and recommends the employment of sufficient cleaners to meet the standard.Canberra Branch secretary of the LHMU, Lyndal Ryan, said:"We need the ACT Government to adopt the Victorian Public Hospital Cleaning standard and all the recommendations of the Caple Report implemented, and we desperately need more cleaners to keep TCH clean."
Canberra does not need a long-running dispute over hospital standards" A long running dispute over cleaning at the Canberra Hospital is the last thing that the Canberra community needs." There have been a number of recent issues at the hospital which have eroded public confidence in the system. Getting the cleaning right should not be a big ask of the hospitals administration, after all Clean Hospitals Means Better Health."
For further information
|
|
Privacy | Disclaimer | Sitemap |Feedback | Links |
|
© 1997-2002 LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW 10th Floor, 377-383 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Ph: (02) 9264 1691 Fax: (02) 9261 3505 http://www.labor.net.au/news/1190162420_8887.html Last Modified: Wednesday, 19-Sep-2007 10:45:30 EST
LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed |
   
|
