Page 2669 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
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safe, high-quality health services for children, adolescents and families in the ACT. The amendment also recognises work that has already been done and is currently underway and commits to updating the Assembly on that work in the first half of
next year.
I move the amendment circulated in my name:
Omit all text after 2(b), substitute:
“(b) the ACT Government is committed to the provision of safe, highquality health services for children, adolescents and families in the ACT and surrounding NSW region;
(c) children and adolescents have specific medical, therapeutic, developmental and broader health needs that require systems to be responsive to their individual circumstances;
(d) the Australian Medical Association (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 has referred to alternative systems used in Victoria and NSW;
(e) under the current system, paediatric patients have all observations recorded on their Paediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) charts;
(f) PEWS is a multi-variable track and trigger system where vital signs are recorded at the bedside, a score is allocated to the vital signs and the individual scores are summed to a total PEWS that assists in the identification of deteriorating patients;
(g) individual vital sign scores (including heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, respiratory rate and oxygen saturations), as well as an increasing PEWS trend can trigger an escalation pathway for clinical review and management of the patient;
(h) paediatric early warning system training is mandatory training for clinicians at orientation and at consistent refresh intervals to maintain evidence-based practice in the management of acute deterioration;
(i) the Call and Respond Early (CARE) for Patient Safety program is in place to enable patients, carers and families to escalate concerns around clinical deterioration;
(j) a working group of clinicians from the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, Paediatrics, Medical Emergency Team and Anaesthetics has been meeting for 12 months to review key areas of policy and procedure for the care of deteriorating and critically ill children, and in particular the early warning system in anticipation of the Digital Health Record implementation;
(k) the Digital Health Record Project Team has continued to work with clinicians to collect data and provide an analysis alongside case scenarios to inform future decision-making regarding the potential adoption of an alternative system;
(l) an external review of Canberra Health Services’ (CHS) Paediatric Services was conducted in 2021 resulting in the development of the CHS Paediatric Organisation and Service Plan 2021-2023 that outlines recommendations and actions that are currently being implemented at CHS;
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