PERTH CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL — AISHWARYA
ASWATH — INDEPENDENT INQUIRY REPORT
714. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the response to the
report of the independent inquiry into Perth Children's Hospital, and I
quote —
We acknowledge ongoing concerns about
staffing shortages � with available bed numbers and resources � underpinning
risks to our ability to meet our patient's needs �
At the time, why did the Minister
for Health say that understaffing and under-resourcing were not issues in Aishwarya Aswath's death, when they
clearly were, especially given that frontline and relatively junior health
staff were quickly referred to the Australian Health Practitioner
Regulation Agency?
Mr R.H. COOK replied:
The selective quotes used by the
member for Vasse refer to the comments I made about staffing on the evening of 3 April. It is true that there was a full roster
of staff available and working that particular evening. The report's
author also said that that particular evening was not a busy evening in
terms of both the number of presentations and the complexity. The staff who were rostered and available were adequate and
certainly consistent with that roster. That is the truth of the matter.
It is also true to say that we were
at that time, and have been since then, continuing to look at the configuration
of staff at that hospital and in that ED in particular. That is why we have
made significant changes to the number of staff available. That includes an
uplift of 49 FTE at the PCH ED. An additional 21 FTE nurses have started
working in that ED since April, and there are currently 22 FTE nursing
vacancies. Six have just been recruited, with another round being completed
yesterday. It is anticipated that 15 staff will be offered posts in this
process. This will leave a total vacancy of just seven FTE nurses in the PCH
ED.
As I have said before repeatedly,
because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions around our borders, we are constrained in terms of the number of doctors
and nurses that we can recruit. This was acknowledged in the report
itself. We will continue to make sure that we put maximum effort into
increasing our numbers. As I just mentioned in
answer to the previous question, we are having a great deal of success in that,
and I look forward to further success.