ICU nurses warn system in crisis ahead of surge in Covid-19 cases

Hundreds of ICU nurses have signed an open letter to Gladys Berejiklian as the state braces for a surge in hospitalisations.

Hundreds of intensive care nurses have written an open letter to the NSW Premier warning the system will not cope with a surge in Covid-19 hospitalisations next month because of an “ICU staffing crisis.”

The stark warning comes as the health system is set to come under strain as the Delta outbreak worsens with health authorities preparing to place overflow ICU beds in hospitals and abandon staff-to-patient ratios.

The number of Covid-19 patients in ICU is expected to triple in October, when NSW Health says demand for critical care will exceed capacity, prompting the government to push staff ratios.

Hundreds of ICU nurses have written an open letter to the NSW Premier warning the system will not cope with a surge in Covid-19 hospitalisations.

But hundreds of ICU nurses have warned the system will not cope if staff-patient levels are not capped at one-to-one.

“Never before has there been such a crucial time in NSW where ICUs should be properly staffed to avoid preventable adverse patient outcomes. This is currently not the case,” the letter reads.

“It is our professional conclusion that ICUs were in crisis prior to the current Covid-19 pandemic … The added demands of the Covid-19 pandemic, testing capacity and surging admissions is forcing our clinical workforce to the brink.”

The open letter signed by ICU nurses across NSW warning the hospital system is already “in crisis”.

The letter calls on the government to currently meet with nurses to mandate a one-to-one patient-staff ratio in ICU and additional breaks to allow nurses to remove PPE.

“Given the chronic unsafe staffing situation, exacerbated by Covid-19, we cannot deliver the care you expect us to provide and the level of critical care our patients rightly deserve,” the letter says.

It comes as modelling from the Burnet Institute has predicted the state’s Covid-19 hospitalisations will peak at more than 3,400 in October as daily case numbers hit more than 2,000 in hotspot LGAs.

But the Premier has insisted that the system can cope with the expected surge in demand, saying “our surge capacity, we estimate, is in excess of what we’ll need.”