Community
26 September, 2026
Potholes on the road to health
HEALTH care workers across the state are expected to rally at several hospitals this week, with an urgent message to the government to provide a “reasonable pay offer” for all staff in the sector.
After more than a year of negotiations without a reasonable offer, the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association (VAHPA) has given the government ‘four weeks to fix it’ in a major escalation in their campaign for safe workloads and a reasonable wage increase.
Should the government fail to deliver an acceptable offer later this week, members will strike for 24 hours next Thursday, October 1.
“Public hospitals are in crisis and healthcare workers are at breaking point,” VAHPA secretary Aneta Menkinoska.
“Every day they are expected to make impossible decisions about whether or not a patient receives the care they deserve.
“We have been bargaining for over a year. For the sake of our communities, this government needs to come to the table and fix this dispute.
“We are seeing allied health community waitlists of over 50 weeks, hospital wards overrun due to staff shortages and an increase in staff sick leave due to stress.”
Ms Menkinoska also said clinicians are having to make risky decisions on the ward because they are overwhelmed with patient lists.
“We have exceptionally experienced members who have spent years being upskilled in specialist areas that are exiting the workforce due to burnout,” she said.
“Junior staff are expected to fill their shoes with little to no experience leading to further stress, burnout and moral injury. It’s not right and it’s certainly not sustainable.”
Ms Menkinoska believes the gap in the standard of care between regional and metropolitan hospitals is widening, with many rural and regional hospitals unable to provide clinics and services due to an inability to recruit and retain experienced clinicians.
