Bed block in overloaded neonatal intensive care wards

Skilled nurses are working 18-hour shifts to cater for vulnerable babies being squeezed into already full neonatal intensive care wards as bed block continues across major hospitals.

The tiniest, sickest and most vulnerable babies are being squeezed into already full neonatal intensive care wards as the state experiences bed block across all major hospitals.

Skilled nurses are also being overworked to cater for the overload of sick babies.

The 10-bed neonatal intensive care unit at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW) is currently running at 16 beds, and the Royal Hospital for Women’s neonatal intensive care (NICU) has been running well in excess of 100 per cent all year. Royal Prince Alfred is also overflowing, staff confirm.

“It’s not about beds, we can always squish another baby in but it is about skilled nurses to care for them and we are overworking them and stretching them more thinly,” a frontline source said.

The tiniest and sickest babies are cared for in neonatal intensive care units.

Joanne Patterson has been a nurse at John Hunter Hospital for 30 years and is about to leave NICU because most nurses are doing 18 hour shifts which, she says, puts vulnerable babies at risk due to fatigue.

“Road safety people tell you it’s dangerous to be awake after 20 hours and that you are the same as over the limit but they allow nurses to work,” she said.

“How can nurses provide safe and effective care to some of our most vulnerable patients while regularly working such long hours, effectively drunk?” she wrote.

Brooklyn McInerney from Bourke owes her daughter’s life to the expert team at Grace Neonatal Ward at CHW where Everleigh spent the first four weeks of her life.

Everleigh was born at Dubbo Hospital with Pierre Robin syndrome, a condition where babies are born with a small lower jaw, narrow airways, breathing difficulties and a cleft of the palate. She was flown to CHW.

Brooklyn McInerney and her baby Everleigh spent four weeks in Grace Neonatal Care at The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

Everleigh, now eight weeks old, has since returned to Bourke, but her parents remember how busy the neonatal unit was.

“The staff were amazing, but extremely busy, every bed was full and we overheard the nurses in charge asking other staff if they could do longer shifts or extra shifts because they were under staffed.

“There was never a time when it wasn’t busy and there was not much space between beds, they had to put in more beds, it was so full, but I could not fault the nurses and doctors, they were amazing.”

Originally published as Bed block in overloaded neonatal intensive care wards