Government backs down on wallsend privatisation

A community campaign driven by nurses throughout 2009 forced the State Government to scrap plans to privatise the Wallsend Aged Care Facility near Newcastle.

On the 21st of December last year, Deptuty Premier and Minister for Health Carmel Tebbutt announced the transfer of Wallsend Aged Care Facility to the private sector was not to happen. (view media release here)

Our delegate at the nursing home, Louise Howell, RN said to The Lamp ‘To say we are very happy with the outcome is an understatement – we are ecstatic,’

‘This victory should give hope to other people in similar situations because it shows the community can make a difference if people believe in what they’re doing and don’t give up.’

Former Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery, who broke the news to nurses and other campaigners, told The Lamp ‘It’s because of your assertiveness that the Government has listened to your concerns. You all deserve to give yourselves a big pat on the back and I’m very proud to make this statement.’

Petition handover outside state parliament: NSWNA Wallsend Branch official Louise Howell, RN (left) presents Sonia Hornery, MP for Wallsend, with the petition.

Friends of Wallsend Aged Care Facility spokeswoman Janet Sutherland estimated that more than 20,000 people had supported the campaign in one way or another.

Janet has also pointed out that the history of the Wallsend site impacted on how the community felt during the campaign, telling The Lamp that  the hospital was built on land donated by Newcastle Wallsend Mining Company with money raised by miners.

‘People feel very strongly about that Wallsend site because it belongs to us. It’s not something to be given away to a private provider,’ she said.

I am delighted that our union’s branch at the nursing home has done a great job in harnessing community support, it means the operation of Wallsend can continue in a fashion that can only be brought about through public ownership.

Residents of the facility need the high care that comes from the staffing ratios, breadth of staffing expertise and numbers that only a public operation can guarantee. There is currently no legislation that makes private providers have these safer staffing ratios and numbers.

How the save Wallsend Aged Care Facility campaign unfolded:

• • The Newcastle Herald described the campaign to stop the sale of Wallsend Aged Care Facility as ‘one of the Hunter’s most prolific and passionate’.
• • Our delegate at the facility, Louise Howell, RN confirmed the fact we had a really strong union base was vital, she said ‘we couldn’t have done it without the Union’s strength, experience and connections’.
• • It was a campaign not just at a community level but a political level,  it didn’t happen overnight, it was achievd over many months through a number of organsiations coming together.
• • An alliance  between the NSW Nurses’ Association  and  “A Fair Go for the Hunter” as well as  a coalition of five other community-based groups, gave the campaign a louder voice without losing its identity.
• • Having more then one organisation on board the campaign made it easier to get other organisations on side, this allowed for more contacts  to be  build and add to the overall support of the campaign.
• • As a community across the organisations formed, the support became stronger.
• • Picket lines were held outside the facility for almost 20 hours a week, with the aim of getting signatures on petitions, in the end over 10,000 names had been signed.
• • Campaigners staged three rallies outside the gates of Parliament House in Sydney and organised a protest march to the office of the Minister for the Hunter, in Newcastle, whilst Nurses and relatives of residents put their case to the Government’s ‘community cabinet’ meeting in Newcastle.
• • The campaign won support from four local councils, other unions, most local MPs in the Hunter region and the NSW Greens which sponsored a successful motion in the NSW Upper House.