Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (12:25): I rise to talk about the bill, to actually talk about nurses and to talk about patient care, quality care and looking after all Victorians from the womb to the tomb. That is what I am going to be talking about in my contribution today, because we love our nurses, we support our nurses and we respect our nurses. That is what is at the heart of this bill – respect for nurses.

I am so pleased to be able to speak on the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2025, which will safeguard working conditions for nurses and midwives as well as safety for patients by improving minimum staffing ratios in Victorian hospitals.

I must acknowledge the member for Werribee on his first contribution to this place. Well done. It was a cracking contribution after an excellent inaugural speech last night. What an asset you are to our caucus. To the people of Werribee – you have chosen well, so thank you and well done.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Through the Chair.

Juliana ADDISON: Thank you to the Minister for Health, her ministerial office and the Department of Health for their work in delivering this bill. In doing so, we are delivering on a commitment that this government has made to Victorians.

The bill follows consultation with numerous stakeholders – and that is really important when we are talking about the health of all Victorians – particularly the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the ANMF, who are good friends of ours, and the Health Workers Union, the HWU, who do excellent work as well.

I want to thank the state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick AO and the leadership of the ANMF Victorian branch for their strong and unrelenting advocacy for their members; locally, our ANMF leadership in Ballarat, Cassia Drever-Smith and Stephanie Cooper; and all the ANMF members across Wendouree. Consultation on this bill also included our healthcare industry organisations the Victorian Healthcare Association and the Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association as well as Safer Care Victoria, the Department of Justice and Community Safety and of course the healthcare services right across our state.

I would like to recognise the many nurses in my community, particularly the nurses who work at our hospitals, our aged care facilities, the urgent care centre, medical clinics, the blood bank and our schools as well as our nursing students studying at Australian Catholic University (ACU) as well as Federation University. Thank you to Grampians Health chief nursing and midwifery officer Leanne Shea and the 1500 nurses who care for my community day in, day out. We have more than 200 presentations at Ballarat Base Hospital emergency department each day, and every patient is cared for by a nurse.

We also have our incredible midwives supporting expectant mothers and bringing our newest Victorians into the world. I had both my babies at Ballarat Base Hospital and am indebted to Tonya and all the midwives who cared for me and my two daughters. I would also like to shout out to the 65 new nursing graduates at Ballarat Base Hospital, and I hope that they are having a seamless transition from university to work practice. And we will never, ever forget – because they are far too important to forget – the incredible work of our nurses in residential aged care, who provide round-the-clock care for our oldest and most vulnerable community members.

I am proud that the Allan Labor government has funded a new education centre at the Ballarat Base Hospital, providing undergraduate placement training for ACU and Fed Uni students as well as providing a centre for ongoing postgraduate training for those nurses interested in advancing their careers. We know that our nurses have a lot to offer, so that ongoing professional development and the opportunity to grow and contribute more are so important.

It is in my community that the Allan Labor government is investing $655 million to redevelop the Ballarat Base Hospital, the largest investment in Ballarat’s history, and we will truly overhaul the facilities available to our community and to our hardworking and committed hospital staff. Once completed, the Ballarat Base Hospital will have capacity for thousands more surgeries annually and tens of thousands more inpatient and emergency services.

I am committed to delivering world-class quality health care locally in my electorate of Wendouree across Ballarat and western Victoria, and our government is committed to delivering the same world-class health care for all Victorians.

Investing in training and retaining our healthcare workforce has increased almost 50 per cent under our government. That is an extra 40,000 healthcare workers supporting our community, and a quarter of those are in regional and rural Victoria. In just the most recent budget we invested an additional $183 million in healthcare workforce initiatives.

We are committed to Victorian health care and respect our Victorian healthcare workers, and that is why the nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios have been enshrined in law here with the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act 2015, a first for an Australian state. It is also why we delivered another tranche of improvements in 2019 and 2020 and have since committed to further strengthening ratios in Victorian emergency departments as well as intensive care, coronary care and high-dependency units. With this bill we are delivering on the promises now.

Enshrining stronger, safer specific patient ratios within law protects patients, but it also protects our healthcare workforce. Victorian nurses and midwives are skilled, hardworking and vital, and this has been brought to everyone’s attention through their incredible work in the wake of the COVID pandemic. These workers prioritise patient safety, and we must make sure to prioritise them. They hold a range of advanced skills and safeguard a wealth of institutional knowledge which our healthcare system cannot afford to overlook. For these reasons and many, many more we are listening to our nurses and midwives when they call for further improvements to patient ratios.

This bill we are considering today will legislate support for closer nursing care within a range of specialised hospital areas. I want to talk about the ICU and I want to talk about the high-dependency units and coronary care units, but I am worried that I have just got so much to talk about on this bill that I am not going to get through it. But I really want to talk about the intensive care units, because, as the name suggests, it is intensive care for our sickest and most vulnerable patients in the system.

Intensive care units are where critically ill patients, including the most acutely unwell and seriously injured, can be closely and thoroughly cared for. This bill reflects this in the definition it inserts within the act before it goes on to legislate for nursing ratios and additional nurse requirements that are specific to ICU.

First and foremost, these amendments introduce a requirement for one nurse per every ICU bed at each of the 23 level 1 or 2 hospitals across our state. Having spent more time than I would like in the Monash ICU with my daughter Johanna after a significant and frightening health episode, I know firsthand how important this level of care is. That is one dedicated ICU nurse for each critically ill patient and one dedicated ICU nurse for each patient on sustained organ support, and this bill will provide additional nursing care within intensive care units with a dedicated nurse in charge for every shift plus at least one team leader to deliver coordinated on-the-ground support for bedside staff.

Liaison nurses will also be available during mornings and afternoons in level 2 hospital ICUs and around the clock in level 1, further ensuring that the needs of critically ill patients will be identified and then met.

In addition to the ICU-specific amendments, this bill seeks to reinforce the nursing requirements within other specialised hospital units. Standalone high-dependency units can facilitate close monitoring outside of the ICU for patients with appropriate levels of need, while coronary care units provide specialist care for serious cardiac arrest cases. HDUs and CCUs are already required to have a nurse in charge rostered for every morning and afternoon shift, and with this bill this requirement will be extended to p.m. shifts as well.

Increasing staffing and supervision during nights in these critical units will only benefit these patients and their staff, and I fundamentally believe it will give a level of comfort to family and loved ones worried about their loved one in our hospitals.

The bill’s initial focus on critical patients also extends to emergency departments, which is so important, with improvements to existing staff ratios in resuscitation cubicles. The act already requires one nurse per resuscitation bed during afternoons and nights. However, in the broader ED the one-to-three ratios will apply during the morning shifts.

In closing I want to say that I am very pleased that we are going to be implementing this – 25 per cent initially then 75 per cent by 1 December and 100 per cent by 1 July 2026 for our nurses, for our patients, for all Victorians. I commend the bill to the house.

 

You can take a look at more of my contributions to Parliament here.