NURSE to patient ratios in the ACT Health system are not being met by the ACT government, according to Canberra Liberals.

Freedom Of Information (FOI) documents obtained by the Liberals reveal only partial compliance with the nurse to patient ratios that were introduced in February.

The ACT government, in February, committed $50 million over four years to hire 90 extra nurses and midwives across Canberra’s health services. These 90 nurses were expected to be hired by mid-year.

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said in February the aim was to have one nurse assigned to every four patients, leading shadow health minister Leanne Castley to ask when the government  will comply with its own ratios.

“The reason for introducing nurse to patient ratios was to provide better care for patients and ease the pressure on nurses but the government has failed on both counts,” she says.

Ms Castley will today (June 8) move a motion in the Legislative Assembly calling on the government to provide ratio compliance figures since February and commit to publicly releasing figures.

The FOI documents dated February 18, 2022, are a “Ratios Update” for the Health Minister which reveal on February 15, only eight out of 17 wards were fully compliant with ratios for the evening shift.

For the morning shift, only nine out of 17 wards were fully compliant, and Ms Castley says it was predicted the night shift would not be fully compliant.

“Health Minister Stephen-Smith failed to properly plan for workforce shortages due to COVID-19 as well as staff quitting and on leave,” says Ms Castley.