Frontline medical staff infected with COVID-19 will be able to access special vacations before immersing themselves in personal vacations after the ACT government has requalified as a civil servant today.
The Australian Federation of Nursing and Midwifery yesterday expressed concern that if infected with the virus, staff would be required to use personal leave before accessing COVID leave.
Today, the ACT government has changed its policy to give sick workers access to up to 7 days of COVID-19 leave before using personal leave if they are still sick.
Katrina, a nurse at Canbella Hospital who agreed to speak to ABC on condition of anonymity, is currently quarantined after being infected with COVID-19.
She said the old policy felt “very unfair”.
Matthew Daniel, Secretary of the ACT Branch of the Australian Federation of Nursing and Midwives, agreed that having health care workers use personal leave instead of COVID leave would primarily worsen the female workforce.
“Nurses and midwives have given a lot over the two years and have done everything they were asked to do,” he said.
“Ask them to jump over some administrative hoops to get a COVID vacation is unaware of the environment in which we have worked.
“Since nurses and midwives are primarily home caregivers, it would be disproportionate for women to require them to take sick leave rather than granting access to COVID leave.”
Julia Jones, a health spokeswoman for Canberra Liberals, welcomed the policy change, but said the situation showed that the capital’s health system still had a “poor work culture.”
“Our nurses have put up with this pandemic a lot. They have fallen into an exhausted and overworked pandemic, and now the government has made them fail when they are most needed. “She said.
“COVID is a disease that takes about a week for people to pass through and is a frequent sick leave illness for the next 12 months. What if I get infected twice?
PPE staff are not given enough breaks
Another nurse, Robert, who spoke anonymously to ABC, also returned a positive COVID result.
He and his colleagues often worked in two shifts to ensure that the ward was staffed, but said the support received from CHS felt superficial.
“I did a tough job at this hospital, but it’s okay because I’m called a health care hero in the poster. I’m a nurse, right? You put up with this because it’s what nurses do, right? ,” He said.
Daniel said the union received reports of staff working long hours at PPE without proper breaks. This is an issue raised at a meeting with Canberra Health Services yesterday.
“I asked if I could turn some attention to the issue, and that attention may be due to a note to all managers of staff who have been wearing PPE for a long time,” Daniel said. Said.
“I heard that CHS is” too busy “to do that communiqué. “
Cathie O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer of Canberra Health Services, said PPE guidelines and visitor restrictions have been put in place to reduce the likelihood that staff will be infected with the virus.
“Our measure is to keep everyone safe,” O’Neill said.
In a statement, Labor Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Mick Gentleman said the outbreak of Omicron variants and the huge number of workers “caused” to expand the government’s COVID vacation policy. rice field.
“The decision to make this change was made earlier this week and was the result of close consultation with all unions,” he said.
“As Minister, I will continue to work with the union movement to keep workers safe.”
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