Page 2674 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
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I present the following paper:
Canberra Health Services Guideline—Acutely unwell and deteriorating paediatric patient, dated 8 August 2022.
This paper includes explanations for how the early warning system works at Canberra Hospital. It also includes the escalation protocols and emergency management for deteriorating patients.
I am also tabling the observation charts of paediatric patients at Canberra Hospital, which clearly show how our clinicians track and trigger vital signs as part of the early warning system. These systems ensure that our health services are recognising and responding to acute deterioration, which is the foundation of an early warning system.
In closing, I want to again recognise that the health services that we provide for children and adolescents are of very clear interest to families, parents, carers and the wider community. We have been undertaking work alongside the CHS specific paediatric planning and operational work. We have been undertaking work to develop a Child and Adolescent Clinical Services Plan, territory wide. This is a significant commitment under the ACT Health Services Plan that I released in August, and work has been underway on this for quite some time.
In order to elevate this work, provide some more transparency of it, and to make sure that it is completed in a timely way, I have today announced the establishment of a Child and Adolescent Clinical Services Expert Panel. It will bring in expertise and bring together senior people from across Canberra Health Services and the ACT Health Directorate, with an independent chair, an independent paediatrician, an academic with expertise in paediatric clinical services, an academic with expertise in paediatric nursing and/or paediatric allied health, a consumer representative and the ACT Human Rights Commission to oversee the finalisation of the Child and Adolescent Clinical Services Plan for the ACT.
It will also review and monitor the implementation of existing recommendations and priorities, including recommendations in the Canberra Health Services Paediatric Organisation and Service Plan 2021-2023, and the Kids Interstate Shared Care Project, which was an important project undertaken in partnership with the Health Care Consumers’ Association, recognising the complexity for children and families receiving interstate care.
We made significant investments in the ACT budget, including a $4.8 million investment in specialist health services for children and young people, with the establishment of a neurodevelopment and behavioural assessment and treatment service, and with additional GP-led multi-disciplinary outpatient clinics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young adults. That is on top of significant investments we have made right across the system, but the neurodevelopment and behavioural assessment and treatment service reflected specifically the findings and recommendations out of the review of paediatric services. It is something that I was very pleased to be able to fund.
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