ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith defends rollout of nurse-to-patient ratios

The ACT's opposition questioned the government's rollout of the nurse-to-patient ratios in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, with shadow health spokeswoman Leanne Castley calling on the government to prove compliance with the ratios.

The territory government started to implement a nurse-to-patient ratio of one to four earlier this year, hiring 90 extra staff to help bolster numbers. It is part of a four-year program with the first lot of ratios to be implemented in the general medical, general surgical, acute aged care and the adult mental health units.

The ratios have been rolled out over the past three months over a grace period, but from July, the government will have to ensure full compliance.

Ms Castley's motion, based on freedom of information documents, showed on February 15 that only eight out of 17 wards were compliant with the ratios in the evening shift and only nine wards were compliant in the morning shift.

Ms Stephen-Smith said the opposition had based their motion on data from mid-February, only two weeks after the ratios started to be implemented. She said more recent data had shown that 89 per cent of all shifts were compliant with the nurse-to-patient ratios.

But staffing shortages have meant that wards have struggled to meet the ratios across every shift. Ms Stephen-Smith said most shifts had been compliant in terms of the roster but staffing absences due to illness had impacted this. On average, about 150 staff are absent a day due to illness.

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"I'm really confident that all of the wards that ratios have been rolled out to through phase one, understand the ratios framework, they understand what they need to do to roster on appropriate staffing levels," she said.

"But what we're seeing across all of our health services, not just in the ACT, but around the country, is that additional workforce pressure, that staffing pressure with people being off as a result of COVID, as a result of flu [and] as a result of other pressures across our health system.

"It's absolutely no doubt that nurses on the ground are seeing wards where ratio should be fully implemented by now, not having those ratios consistently met 100 per cent of the time that they are on shift, we absolutely acknowledge that that is the reality for nurses on the ground."

Ms Stephen-Smith said work was under way on how to develop effective reporting to ensure the data accurately reflected what had happened during the shift.

"What we need to do is be able to capture that granular data on what is actually happening on our wards, not just at the beginning of a shift ... but then what's happening during those shifts as people have conversations about being short," she said.

Ms Castley said she had heard from nurses that ratios were not being met.

"We're hearing anecdotal words from nurses on the floor but we have also spoken to the nurses union and they've just said the system is cracking, that the ratios aren't being met," she said.

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