NPAQ Nurses Professional Association of Queensland

11/12/2025

On 4BC this morning, NPAQ President Kara Thomas called it out - Queensland’s health system is failing its nurses.

Today’s Courier-Mail story shows the absurdity: we’re staring down a 21,000 nurse shortage, yet graduates can’t get jobs. Less than half of the 4200 new nurses and midwives have been hired, while the ones inside the system are drowning in double shifts and burnout.

https://hubs.la/Q03XNKPk0

Meanwhile, the bed block grows. Violence rises. Workloads explode. And nurses are told there’s “no money” to fix it.

If Queensland needs nurses, then hire the nurses.
Fix staffing. Fix bed block. Protect our people.
Enough spin, we need real action.

10/12/2025

🚨 MODERN SLAVERY FEARS IN AGED CARE 🚨
Our national survey has uncovered disturbing reports of migrant aged-care workers being exploited across Australia reported in the media this weekend.

Workers reported:
🔹 Passports locked in facility safes
🔹 Threats to visa sponsorship and PR
🔹 Pressure to work unpaid overtime and double shifts
🔹 Being called in from annual leave or while sick
🔹 Fear and intimidation used to control vulnerable staff

These are clear indicators of modern slavery and human trafficking, reported in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. They are not isolated cases, they are a pattern.

NPAA has lodged formal complaints with:
✔ The Minister for Home Affairs
✔ The Fair Work Ombudsman
✔ The Australian Human Rights Commission

We are calling for a full investigation into coercive labour practices, including passport retention, visa threats, wage exploitation, and unsafe workloads.

If you have any information about migrant worker exploitation — whether it happened to you, a colleague, or in your workplace — please contact us:

📧 hotline@redunion.com.au

27/11/2025

Queensland’s hospital system isn’t “under pressure" - it’s breaking, and nurses are carrying the weight.

More than 1,100 beds are blocked by patients who shouldn’t be in hospital at all. That’s almost $1 billion wasted every year while frontline workers are pushed beyond breaking point.

This isn’t a staffing failure. This isn’t a funding accident. This is policy failure.

NPAA President Kara Thomas has penned an article in The Spectator Australia.

Queensland's blocked beds are costing taxpayers almost $1 billion. The consequences are deadly. This is a health crisis for Australia.

25/11/2025

Tasmania, like the rest of the country, has a bed-block crisis costing more than $215,000 every single day, and nearly 100 people are stuck in hospital beds waiting for aged care or NDIS places.

And still, we keep pretending the solution will come from the top.

Look at Christchurch. They blew the doors off the old system, one funding pool, local control, teams who actually talk to each other, and nurses working at full scope.

The result? No bed block. No ramping. No endless waiting lists.

That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because frontline workers were empowered to fix the system instead of fighting it. It happened because prevention, primary care, urgent care centres, and nurse practitioner-led services were treated as the backbone, not an afterthought. Nearly 1000 nurse practitioners in one region, stepping up and keeping people out of hospital safely.

Tasmania could do the same. Queensland could. Every state could.

But only if we stop centralising every decision and start trusting communities and the nurses who hold them together to design what actually works.

A specialist doctor and the head of the nurses’ union say Tasmania should look to New Zealand where radical health reforms have ended bed block and ambulance ramping.

25/11/2025

🚨 Still locked out. Still being Punished.

Queensland nurses are speaking up: despite staff shortages, many are still being rejected from jobs because of COVID-era “serious misconduct disciplinary action” labels.

❌ They were never unsafe.
❌ They were always willing to work.
❌ They asked for risk assessments — and got blacklisted.

🗣️ How can we talk workforce crisis and still sideline experienced hands?

📣 Have you or someone you know been blocked from returning to QHealth? Drop us a message or comment below 👇

Queensland nurses, desperate to re-enter their careers, claim they are still being knocked back from roles in the state’s health system despite mandated Covid-19 vaccinations being scrapped years ago.

11/11/2025

Queensland’s Premier has revealed that over 1100 patients are trapped in hospital beds — people who should be receiving care in aged care or NDIS settings, but can’t move because the system is gridlocked.

This isn’t just numbers. It’s our reality. Nurses stretched to breaking point. Patients waiting in corridors. Aged care residents left in hospital because there’s nowhere else for them to go.

The Premier’s right. Queensland’s health system is in crisis, and the funding shortfall from Canberra is part of the problem. But those living it every day already know: the system’s been at breaking point for years.

If you’re a nurse, carer, or patient feeling the impact - we want to hear from you.
Your stories make the truth impossible to ignore.

📧 Email us: hotline@redunion.com.au
💬 Or comment below — what’s happening in your ward, your town, your hospital?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been sent back to the drawing board as Premier David Crisafulli threatens a political brawl over the Commonwealth’s “cruel” hospital funding deal.

10/11/2025

Today marks 107 years since the signing of the armistice which saw the end of the First World War.

As we reflect on the incredible bravery of the Australian men and women who have fought for our country, we must renew our gratitude for their sacrifices - of which more than 100,000 have made the ultimate one.

Australia's involvement in WW1 is one of great magnitude and bloodshed. A small country just 13 years since federation, Australia answered the call to enter the Great War and more than 62,000 perished - over 1.2% of our total population. More to the point, nearly 15% of all the men that enlisted paid the ultimate price.

To understand the sheer scale of the sacrifices made, that equates to 326,400 dead as a proportion of our population today.

The courage and patriotism of all the men and women who have died for our country has left an indelible mark on our nation's history. There is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend, and we enjoy the freedoms we have today because of the men and women who have done so.

Let's honour their memory and commemorate their legacy. Lest we forget.

06/11/2025

When aged care breaks down, hospitals bear the cost & nurses carry the load.

The ABC’s latest investigation shows older Australians waiting months just to be assessed for care. Some die before they ever get the help they were promised. While they wait, hospital beds fill with patients who could have gone home or into a supported facility if the aged care system worked.

This isn’t “bed block.” It's a system failure.

Nurses see it daily: frail patients stranded in wards, desperate families calling aged care hotlines, colleagues stretched past breaking point. Every delay downstream lands squarely on our wards and our backs.

Until aged care is properly staffed, properly funded, and free from profit motives, hospital overcrowding will only get worse and nurses will keep being asked to do the impossible.

💬 Nurses how often do you see patients stuck in hospital because aged care support isn’t ready?

Families and insiders say the system to assess people for aged care is in crisis, with 116,000 people on the waiting list. Once approved, they join the queue to get a home care package, which stands at more than 120,000.

05/11/2025

After months of frontline staff raising the alarm about dangerous conditions at Kerrisdale Gardens, The Courier-Mail has now reported both the tragedy and the real improvements that have resulted from member advocacy.

Residents are finally safer. Staffing levels are better. Infection control and clinical resources have improved.

This turnaround happened because nurses refused to stay silent. Your courage led to action and shows what’s possible when management listens and acts on frontline feedback.

❤️ To every nurse and carer who spoke up, thank you. You’ve made a difference.

What other changes would you like to see in aged care?

👉 Read the full story:

An 85-year-old retiree suffering from dementia died after being left unsupervised by his aged care provider in the hot Queensland sun for hours.

04/11/2025

🏥 New Aged Care Reforms: Who Pays What?

Australia’s aged care system is changing again. Under the new reforms, self-funded retirees and some pensioners will now pay more towards their care, while the government reduces its contribution by billions over the next decade.

That means higher out-of-pocket costs for everyday living and independence supports like showering, meals, and medication management. The idea? To “sustain” the system and shorten waiting lists.

But there’s a deeper issue. If older Australians can’t afford the care they need at home or in residential facilities, where will they go? Hospitals.

Already at breaking point. Already facing “bed block” and delayed discharges every single day. Aged care reform can’t come at the cost of acute care. We need a system that supports ageing with dignity, not one that pushes more people through emergency doors.

💬 Do you think these new aged care fees could increase pressure on hospitals and emergency departments?
Share your thoughts below or email us: hotline@redunion.com.au

A new fee structure for aged care takes effect today. Find out what it will mean for you.

29/10/2025

🚨 SECRET DOCUMENTS CONFIRM WHAT NURSES HAVE BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG 🚨

Gladstone Hospital ED is in crisis. Internal reports accessed by The Courier-Mail show what NPAQ nurses have been shouting for months:

🧯 Critically ill patients left in hallways
📉 Dangerous understaffing — putting nurses' registrations on the line
🏥 Unmonitored areas used for high-risk patients
📋 Workload grievance and Riskman's — dismissed or ignored

And what did leadership do?
❌ Deny it
❌ Refuse to meet frontline nurses
❌ Direct them to failing escalation pathways

📢 We will not let these voices be silenced.

👉 Join NPAQ!
👉 Demand ratios. Demand respect. Demand truth.

Explosive internal documents have exposed shocking scenes inside the Gladstone Hospital emergency department that directly contradict public assurances from Queensland’s Health Minister and the hospital's chief executive that no patients were left unattended.