Today on a zoom call, HealthShare introduced the planned transition to ‘Stage 3’ in their pandemic operations.

Over 100 staff plus representatives from the HSU and the Nurses and Midwives Association of NSW were in attendance to hear the proposed changes. The transition would abandon the current system of dedicated red and green cars (representing Covid and non-Covid jobs) and a transition to crews completing both red and green jobs throughout their shifts, with the exception being Residential Aged Care Facility bookings and staff who have immunocompromised care needs.

Members are aware that HealthShare management have already been pushing for crews to move to this system, disregarding the HSU bans.

As a reminder, there has been no reversal of the current bans instated by members in October of 2021 to keep patients and each other safe. Here they are again:

1.    No crossing back over the COVID line during shift. (i.e. no green, red, green)

A COVID job is classified as: confirmed case, suspected case, or positive but no longer infectious

2.    No multiloading outside of family/household units

3.    No pairing up of single officers from different hubs

Membership from patient transport will have the opportunity to vote and share their perspective on the current COVID situation and the state of the bans in an upcoming survey. During this challenging time, HSU members in patient transport will continue to put safety first and support each other.

In unity,

Gerard Hayes

Secretary, HSU NSW/ACT/QLD