Nursing and midwifery registration renewal fees have
increased from $47 in 2003, to $80 in 2004, to $95 in 2009, to $115 in 2011 and to $160
in
2012. This is an increase of $113 or 340 per cent in less than nine
years.
Despite
the unprecedented registration renewal fee increases, the Nursing and
Midwifery
Board of Australia (NMBA) is yet to confirm it will fund and expand the
successful, evidence-based Nursing
and Midwifery Health Program Victoria
(NMHPV) that protects patients and keeps nurses and midwives well and in
the
workforce.
Please sign our online petition to save this
health program that has helped and supported many hundreds of Victorian
nurses,
midwives and nursing and midwifery students.
For the
last six years Victorian nurses and midwives have had access to this
confidential health program to help with alcohol and drug health issues
and
mental illness. The program has successfully encouraged nurses and
midwives to
self-refer early to protect their patients, to seek treatment and to
save their
career.
The
program is unique to Victoria and was self-funded through annual
Victorian
nurses' and midwives' registration renewal fees at an annual cost of
about $6
per nurse and midwife.
Things
changed in July 2010 when state nursing boards were abolished and
national
registration was introduced with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of
Australia
now responsible for the registration of 343,703 nurses and midwives
across
Australia.
In late
2010 the then Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews secured funding
from the
sale of the Nurses Board of Victoria city property to operate the
Nursing and
Midwifery Health Program for the next three years. This funding will run
out in
June 2013.
The
Baillieu Government also publicly supported the program making an
election
commitment in October 2010 stating: "The Coalition is committed to
demanding
that the new Nurses Board under the Australian Health Practitioners
Registration Authority [sic] fund in full and permanently the Victorian
Nurses
Health program, a uniquely Victorian program that is at risk under the
new
national registration program."
Please
let the Nursing and Midwifery Board know how important this program is
to
Victorian nurses and midwives.
It will
only take a few minutes to sign
our online petition calling on the
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Chair Anne Copeland to confirm
funding
and support for the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program in Victoria and
to
extend the program to other nurses and midwives in all Australian states
and
territories so that all nurses, midwives, their patients and their
employers
can benefit.
Once you've signed
the petition please share this easy to remember online petition link
www.tiny.cc/nmbapetition with
your
nursing and midwifery colleagues.
