IT feels like only yesterday the world was enamoured with medical professionals.
Silent streets around the world echoed with appreciative noise as those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic did their best to protect those of us trapped at home.
How quickly things change.
The realities of a health system dealing with all of its previous load as well as the new problems associated with COVID-19 are strain, expanded workload and doing more with less.
It is perhaps little wonder, then, that those who keep the machines running and patients reassured believe the appreciation espoused so loudly by leaders should translate from cheap words into some kind of monetary recognition.
Union members walked off the job at the John Hunter Hospital on Wednesday in solidarity with colleagues at other medical hubs, including Morisset.
The union is seeking a 6.5 per cent wage increase that includes a 0.5 per cent superannuation rise.
The Minns government is in the spotlight, with the union calling on the Labor government to honour election commitments made to health workers in the fight to unseat Dominic Perrottet.
"It's in the context of inflation of 7-plus per cent, rents in Newcastle skyrocketing and everyone's mortgages have gone up - some people's have tripled," HSU industrial officer for Newcastle Jeremy Lappin said.
Given the public health system runs on taxpayers' dollars, ensuring value for money is a logical step.
But it is evident that perhaps no other workplace has changed since 2020 as those in the health space.
Hospitals stand as monoliths in that sector, and the workers in them deal with all manner of cases.
Staffing levels, union members say, have not matched the growth of the John Hunter. Statistics show a substantial uptick in that hospital's emergency presentations over the past decade.
Given a retention crisis for nurses, could there be a more appropriate time to address their pay and conditions?
Health workers have also highlighted areas they believe are costing taxpayers more than they should, including in a pre-election report.
The question those who believe nurses are not worth the higher outlay must answer is, are those areas providing more value?
Undervaluing important jobs erodes communities. If essential workers, to borrow a lockdown-era phrase, cannot afford to live in communities, who will do those communities' essential work?
ISSUE: 39,922
To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.
