Page 2665 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
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deserves, greater scrutiny, greater transparency, greater accountability, and greater probity and integrity in government decisions.
My bill will deliver more transparency, more accountability and more integrity to government in the territory, and I urge every member to support it. I commend my bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Steel) adjourned to the next sitting.
Health—paediatric services
MS CASTLEY (Yerrabi) (3.23): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes the tragic recent deaths of a five year old girl and 13 year old boy and acknowledges parents’ concern about ensuring the best hospital care for sick and deteriorating children;
(2) further notes:
(a) there has been media attention on the early warning system for paediatric patients at the Canberra Hospital and how it can be improved;
(b) the Australian Medical Association (AMA) (ACT) has called on the Government to consider changing its system so monitoring can be escalated based on one factor (one vital sign) alone and referred to better systems in Victoria and NSW; and
(c) Canberra Health Services has said the system has been under review over the past 12 months with input from a range of clinicians; and
(3) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) immediately improve the early warning system for paediatric patients by introducing a new protocol enabling staff to escalate the care of a deteriorating child based on a single vital sign—such as increased heart rate, blood pressure, temperature—which would trigger an increase in patient monitoring;
(b) provide training in the new system to all staff to ensure compliance, including in the emergency department, intensive care and paediatrics;
(c) release the review into the system as well as recommendations and the Government’s response, before the October sitting period;
(d) detail what investigations the Government has made into the Victorian and NSW systems which the AMA (ACT) have said are better and the Government’s response, before the October sittings; and
(e) explain and provide details about what evaluation has been done of the ACT’s Paediatric Early Warning System before the October sittings.
This motion today has been prompted by the waste of a beautiful life and the recent deaths of children in the Canberra Hospital. Rozalia Spadafora deserved a full life and all of our children do. But her life is over. As we know, she died at the Canberra Hospital and the coroner will hold an inquest sometime next year.
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