You will now have been made aware that HealthShare NSW wants to take over your roles in Western Sydney Hospitals. This is part of their “Shared Service Evolution Program”. This program is a transition of all non-clinical support services (linen, cleaning, waste management, post-discharge bed making) over to HealthShare. 

HSU members have been told that nothing will change and everything will remain the same. Which begs the question: why is NSW Health making this change?  

Support services in Western Sydney LHD are guinea pigs for a huge system change that HealthShare want to roll out across the state.

This program proposes big changes for HSU members at work (check out the full PowerPoint at this link). These include:  

• Being employed by HealthShare and not the LHD.
• Introducing the “Task Allocation System” (TAS), a smartphone-based system to tell you what to do. 
• Loading Dock Optimisation – who knows what this means?
• Using Ubers to transport patients.  

NSW Health and HealthShare are looking to cut costs. The HSU has heard that HealthShare believes that they will be able to save $100 million by taking over these services. But where will that money come from? 

Your Union will be holding site by site briefings this week to ensure every member has a say about their job. Management should not be able to make sweeping changes to members’ working lives without genuine consultation.  

Come to a Union meeting: 12 PM TOMORROW – Loading Dock  

This will be the first of many meetings. Over the coming weeks Union members will come together to develop a plan to make sure that big government bureaucrats from St Leonards cannot make changes that affect our hospitals and our communities without union members having a seat at the table. Local Hospitals need local voices.