Up to 3,000 Western Australian health care workers in the South Metropolitan Health service, including doctors, nurses and patient care assistants, could lose their jobs or have their hours reduced because of funding cuts, according to the WA Australian Medical Association president, Dr Michael Gannon.

The Barnett state government has announced that 1,163 full-time equivalent positions will be cut to claw back more money for the state budget. A nurse at one of the affected hospitals told Red Flag: “This government has been delivering blows to front line staffing levels for some time”.

It has been confirmed that Royal Perth Hospital, Fiona Stanley Hospital, Armadale and Fremantle hospitals will bear the brunt of the job losses, with smaller hospitals such as Rockingham General Hospital rumoured to be affected by a future announcement.

With the South Metropolitan Health Service already struggling to cope under the pressure of previous funding and staff cuts, patient care is at risk. Ambulance queues will continue to grow, and health workers left behind will be forced to work harder with fewer resources.

United Voice and the Health Services Union, both of which represent affected workers, organised a strike in December against the cuts. The Australian Nursing Federation WA branch has been more muted in its response. With enterprise agreement negotiations for nurses across the state about to begin, Mark Olsen, WA branch secretary of the union, said, “I can assure the public that nurses will be reasonable in their demands”.

But the nurse that Red Flag spoke to says that this is exactly what the government wants. “The casualisation of the health care workforce along with the privatisation of health care and other services has been the strategy of the Barnnett government for a long time now”, she said.

“It is intended to scare us into submission and it often works. Now they have actually admitted publicly to an even broader agenda. As the renegotiation of our EBA looms, I hope nurses are not cowed by these tactics.”