ICU so understaffed patients risk death, says nurses union

Some of Sydney largest’s hospitals are so understaffed critical care patients risk fatal outcomes, a nurses association says.

The NSW Nurese and Midwives’ Association says intensive care units are in crisis. Picture: iStock

Nurses are facing burnout and patients are at risk of death because of severe staff shortages in intensive care units, the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association has warned.

As more ICUs are built around the country, legislation has failed to keep up with their changing layouts, NSWNMA general secretary Brett Holmes said. Single rooms in particular had changed patient access for critical-care nurses, he said.

“Hospital management doesn’t, at senior level and ministry level, understand how modern intensive care units work, and the layout that’s been created now makes it even more critical,” he said. “You simply can’t look across at the next bed or listen through curtains anymore.

“Obviously in times of Covid, that’s really quite cumbersome, or when you’re dealing with a patient who is infectious. You’ve got to take off and put on different sets of particular equipment.”

Mr Holmes raised the alarm on Sydney’s major hospitals, saying the association has been aware of issues for more than 12 months. In Sydney, Blacktown ICU nurses have had to care for up to six critically ill patients at a time and at Westmead there are times where management battle to cover for staff who are away.

“Westmead could have 15 nurse vacancies on a shift so they were trying to cover by overtime or casuals. That’s across a big unit where you may have 60 staff on,” he said.

A NSW Health spokesperson said that as patient numbers increased managers would seek more staff. “Patient acuity determines staffing levels; when patient numbers increase, or there are more patients that require one-to-one care, ICU clinical managers adjust staffing accordingly.

“There are more nurses and midwives in NSW public hospitals than at any other time in the history.”