The Nurse strike action back in 2023 has definitely changed the quality of services on offer in the private hospitals. This did not end well and never does for workers that strike because holding companies to ransom will only end up with job losses via restructuring.
My wife was booked into the local private hospital last Friday for an illness and should be out by around Thursday. She would have been out today if the nursing had been up to scratch providing the service they should have been. The problem lies in the fact that the night shift is mainly outsourced care staff and they have not been doing their duties.
On Saturday and on Monday night no medication was administered because the IV line was not set right. The Monday night excuse was there was no plastic green butterfly clip or whatever it is called because they were all being used by other patients. There are 3 ladies in this particular private ward and they buzzed the nurse via the button by the bed and no one came. This was done multiple times and they timed the nurses reaction which was 5 hours. It took 12 hours to be given ice water Apparently they did not see the light buzzing and applogised. One starts to wonder what if there was a proper emergency.
The bathroom had some repairs undertaken on Saturday and the dismantled towel machine is still lying in pieces around the sink. This is what you would expect if this was not private and the care side of things has disappeared or is disappearing quickly.
This is definitely not what one expects when paying the extra for private medical care. the doctor in charge of my wife was furious and he has lodged a complaint along with my wife ad other two patients in the ward who lodged complaints today.
When I was being looked after in the same hospital I had no issues and was treated as you would expect and the nursing staff were professional. At the time there was strike action taking place and I did not pay much attention even though I heard some discussions. The big difference from then until now is that the hospital has outsourced it's night shift and those staff members are no longer employed by the hospital.
There are two sides to the coin when you start going down the route of outsourcing staff. I do understand due to the labor laws in this country which are set out to screw the employer. Back in March of 2023 the nurses had a week long walkout whilst striking and why health care companies had to change how they hired their staff. This is the downside of staff striking as they do lose their jobs and have done here through outsourcing.
The pro side is it relieves the employer of the hassle of dealing with staff which is time consuming and expensive along with the fact once you hire someone it is actually very difficult to fire them. Having your own staff under your direct control means you can have set standards in place offering a quality service. If someone is sick or does not pitch up to work the outsourcing company handles this by providing a replacement.
The downside and there are many is that outsourced staff do not care and see this as purely as a job possibly getting experience under their belt hoping to apply for positions overseas. Managing of permanent staff working side by side with outsourced staff is not easy and there will be friction.
The standards is my biggest concern because it is proving that they are not being kept so whatever savings they may be making short term they will be losing long term. As a family we will if required specify for another hospital close by as having someone dealing with your health who does not care is too high a gamble to take. The trick is don't get sick or require treatment.
I have seen other companies in other areas outsource their staff and it all revolves around the point that they are not responsible for the staff. Most of these agreements do not work out and why the bigger companies will have multiple service providers dealing with staff which makes it even more confusing.