Leanne Castley to call for improvements to paediatric early warning system

Canberra Liberals health spokeswoman Leanne Castley will move a motion in the Legislative Assembly calling on the government to allow for children's care to be escalated based on a single vital sign.

The early warning system for paediatric patients has come under intense scrutiny following the deaths of five-year-old Rozalia Spadafora and 13-year-old Brian Lovelock.

Australian Medical Association ACT branch president Walter Abhayaratna has previously said the government should consider changes.

He said the current system determined the level care on an aggregate score based on a combination of all vital signs. He said this often did not allow for monitoring to be escalated on one factor alone, such as an increasing heart rate.

Professor Abhayaratna said the ACT should consider the systems of monitoring in NSW and Victoria.

Ms Castley will call for the changes recommended by the AMA in her motion on Wednesday. She said the government needed to act urgently to bolster the early warning system.

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"We have to do everything we can to stop our children dying in our hospitals," she said.

"If the systems are better in NSW and Victoria as the AMA has said, then let's implement them here.

"Sick children can deteriorate extremely quickly and it is clear we can do better in identifying that."

Canberra Health Services has previously defended the early warning system.

A spokesman told The Canberra Times earlier this month said the system had been confirmed as being sufficient in the recent accreditation of Canberra Health Services by the Australian Council on Health Care Standards.

However, the system has been under review for the past year and authorities are considering whether any changes needed to be made.

Ms Castley will also call for this review to be released and for the government to detail what, if any, investigations have been made into the systems in NSW and Victoria.

There have also been calls for a formal inquiry into paediatric services in the territory but Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has ruled this out saying she was not convinced it would be helpful at this stage.

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