Special Projects
Metropolitan Hospitals
The Metropolitan Hospitals program works with clinicians and consumers to consider clinical, networking and workforce issues across Metropolitan Hospitals and Area Health Services. Metropolitan Hospitals receive $30.9 million annually from the NSW Health budget, as recommended by GMTT. This additional funding commenced in 2002 and supported increased staffing in a number of hospitals.
Clinicians and consumers raised a number of issues of concern to Metropolitan Hospitals which have been taken up by the group, including over-reliance on the locum workforce, general work force issues, morale and relationships between clinicians and managers. Working groups have been formed and several discussion documents have been developed. Broad consultation across hospitals and Area Health Service continues to occur.
Medical Locum Group
The medical locum group produced a paper discussing the over-reliance on locum medical staff in metropolitan hospitals, and implications for the general medical workforce. It outlined the scope of the locum issue and suggested a number of possible solutions. The Director General and Minister for Health have formed an Implementation Taskforce to progress the concerns and options raised.
Workforce
Clinician and consumers identified the need to review Metropolitan Hospital staffing and associated skill sets. Advice of senior medical and allied health professionals was sought to discuss safe standards of staffing and define the skills required for the safe operation of metropolitan hospitals at all hours. Nursing has not been addressed as NSW Health has a project underway relating to nursing workload.
Medical
A Medical Workforce discussion paper was prepared which outlines baseline staffing and skills with a particular focus on after-hours care. Consideration has been given to the areas of Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine, Paediatrics, and Acute Medicine.
Allied Health
Allied health professionals emphasised that in order to explore new models of care and define skill mixes in allied health professions, careful review of current work practices needed to occur. As a result, GMCT and NSW Health jointly funded Phase 1 of an allied health project. The project aimed to develop a template that will assist in defining clinical interventions for particular clinical areas and determine how many clinicians are required for that particular clinical population based on the needs of the patient. This template provides a baseline for the allocation of staff to assist service planning, and to help achieve consistency in staffing mix across the Areas. Appropriately staffed services will be more attractive from a retention perspective and hence be more likely to enhance recruitment of staff. Download the Report here.
Clinical Emergency Response Systems (CERS) for Medical Emergencies
The CERS Working Group was established after requests were received from clinicians to review the need for CERS in Metropolitan Hospitals. Clinicians from a variety of backgrounds and hospitals came together to examine current systems. They identified the need for more accurate and timely identification of the “deteriorating patient in hospital wards”. Workforce shortages, a lack of resources, staff training and education were all considered important factors. From these discussions, a document outlining Minimum Standards for Clinical Emergency Response Systems was prepared. Flexibility has been built in to the document to meet the needs of all hospitals. Download the Summary of GMCT Guidelines for In-House CERS for Medical Emergencies.
Kylie Fraser, Project Manager, Tel (02) 9887 5567
Email: kfraser@nsccahs.health.nsw.gov.au |
