The Australian Nursing Federation has released a 10-point plan to overcome difficulties at Perth Children’s Hospital.

The plan has been sent to Health Minister Roger Cook in response to the death of seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath.

It comes after the Health Minister paid a surprise visit to the Perth Children’s Hospital emergency department last night.

6PR Mornings host Liam Bartlett criticized the Minister for using the visit as a “photo opportunity”.

“The Minister went to Perth Children’s Hospital … and found the time to grab a photo opportunity so he could be seen in The West Australian today visiting the scene of the tragedy, but nothing of any real substance.”

The 10-point plan was presented to the Health Minister this morning, and includes allocating one nurse for every three patients and doubling the number of staff development nurses in the emergency department.

“The nurses have taken it upon themselves to affect change, and try and do something that means something,” Bartlett said.

Australian Nursing Federation 10-point plan: 

1.     Implement a staff allocation of one nurse for every three patients.

2.     Shift coordinators and triage nurses not included in floor numbers of dot point one – which means they don’t take a patient load.

3.     Supernumerary resuscitation team – minimum of four nurses for the resuscitation team would also be available to assist the floor staff with category two patients and patients with behavioural problems.

4.     Engagement from the PCH Executive team on a PCH Emergency Department Taskforce that includes nursing representation.  This will be a staff led taskforce with key performance indicators to manage the transition and  oversee the implementation of the above dot points as well as looking at ways to recruit additional staff to the department in a timely manner.

5.     Double the number of Staff Development Nurses in the Emergency Department.

6.     Open the Paediatric Critical Care Unit to its full capabilities to that it can function as an Intensive Care Unit and High Dependency Unit.

7.     A clearly articulated Winter/Surge Bed Management Strategy that is published and available to all staff and the community.

8.     Fast track recruitment with a maximum turnaround time of 4 weeks.  That is no more than 4 weeks from application to working the first shift.

9.     3C (the short stay surgical unit) that currently closes at 1pm on Saturday needs to be kept open 24/7 on the weekend and staffed appropriately as this will reduce access block.

10.  Additional numbers of specifically trained paediatric security staff for the Perth Children’s hospital.

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