A wellbeing hub where hospital staff can rest and recharge before they go home, a mental-health self-assessment to catch health workers before they go into crisis, and an outreach roadshow could be funded by a new, nearly $9 million fund.
To help workers recover from what health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith called an incredibly difficult few years, the ACT Government’s $8.75 million Health Workforce Wellbeing and Recovery Fund will finance activities and initiatives, proposed by the workers themselves, across ACT public health services (including in Canberra Health Services, Calvary Public Hospital, Clare Holland House, QEII, and the ACT Health Directorate).
“Healthcare workers have carried a heavy load in supporting our community through almost three years of the pandemic,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Workers, she said, were distressed and fatigued, due to the need to constantly adapt in response to COVID-19, workforce shortages, and separation from family and friends during a difficult and unpredictable time.
The fund was part of the ACT Government’s wider sweep of packages to support the workforce and plan for its future, while supporting staff today, the minister said.
The 2022-23 ACT Budget, for instance, committed $7.2 million to health workers’ wellbeing and safety (including addressing occupational violence and working with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation – ACT Branch on the Towards a Safer Culture Strategy), and $84 million to recruit more healthcare workers.
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The ACT Government was committed to implementing nurse and midwife-to-patient ratios, improving pay and conditions (through Enterprise Agreement negotiations), and reducing occupational violence and building positive cultures, Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Engaging staff in co-designing the initiatives that would be implemented was a crucial part of that culture work, Ms Stephen-Smith said. Her message to health workers:
“We’ve got $8.75 million on the table. We’re going to work with you as staff to understand what’s going to work best to improve your wellbeing.
“But that sits alongside a whole lot of other pieces of work around recruitment, retention, and culture. And it all comes together to ensure that we’re making our ACT public health services excellent places to work that are going to attract and retain staff right across the board.”
The Fund has provided $300,000 for a national recruitment campaign to bring nurses and midwives to the ACT. Next year’s graduate intake will be much larger than those of previous years.
“But we also need to recruit experienced staff and retain the fabulous staff that we already have,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Healthcare workers present at the minister’s media briefing said staff feel excited to put forward ideas.
“They’re excited that they have a voice,” paediatric palliative care nurse, Ashka Jolly, and social worker and Canberra Health Services NDIS lead, Phyo Courtis, said.
However, the ANMF ACT has reservations about the Fund. Matthew Daniel, the ANMF’s branch secretary, said the government had not consulted the union; he was not sure how the Fund would work, or how it would integrate with workforce planning.
He was concerned that it put the burden of coming up with their own initiatives onto already overworked individuals and individual workplaces.
“In a perfect world, that would have merit. But we have got a health system that has too many systemic issues that need to be addressed…
“This initiative alone just does not go anywhere near addressing the issues we talked about – making sure the ratios are met, improving safe workplaces, making sure that we get the attraction and retention right.”
Mr Daniel wanted the government to provide a breakdown of funds, and how much money would be allocated to the various organisations.
“There’s quite a few, so that eight or nine million dollars is going to be spread pretty thin.”
The ANMF’s psychosocial survey showed that its members felt they were trying to address an increased workload and decreased staffing on their own, Mr Daniel said. He repeated the union’s calls for a workforce plan to stem the flow of nurses and midwives leaving the ACT.
