Frustrated nurses are ready to quit en masse as their bitterly fought industrial campaign with the Victorian government drags on.
Health Minister David Davis told The Age that the government was taking very seriously the threat of mass resignations which would throw the hospital system into chaos.
Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick says she has received thousands of letters from nurses authorising her to resign on their behalf between February 13 and March 31.
But any resignations won't occur before the end of February, when the union had completed a series of meetings to brief nurses at hospitals around the state on the plan.
'There is obviously a very significant number of nurses that are considering their future permanent employment in the public sector,' Ms Fitzpatrick said.
She said the nurses main concern is that they don't want to work in a system where they don't have ratios and where they have to be legally responsible for health assistants.
Ms Fitzpatrick said that the nurses planning to resign were happy to work casually in the public sector.
Nurses are seeking an 18.5 per cent pay rise over three years and eight months while the government is offering a 2.5 per cent annual rise, with any further increases to be offset by productivity measures.
Meanwhile, the Herald Sun says foreigners are clogging up Victorian hospitals and running off before paying their bills.
The paper said the freeloading foreigners left Victorian hospitals with more than $6 million in unpaid bills last year.
Angry doctors say Australians are being pushed down waiting lists while the foreigners are hogging the beds.
More than 30,000 foreign citizens were treated in Victorian hospitals in 2010-11.
