21 April 2021
The Noarlunga Hospital emergency department has secured an additional triage night-shift nurse following concerns raised by the ANMF (SA Branch).
We recently wrote to the SALHN expressing our concern over two breaches of the Nursing and Midwifery (South Australian Public Sector) Enterprise Agreement 2020 (NMEA 2020):
- On a night shift the second triage RN or triage assist RN/EN is not being provided, and
- The dedicated resus nurse is required to provide services in other parts of the health unit (MET, rapid response team, Code Blue), when this should be considered as an additional resource.
SALHN has now agreed to formally roster the second triage nurse or triage assist RN/EN on the night shift over seven days from 7 May, 2021. In “the meantime, additional staff will be allocated as and where necessary”.
SALHN disagrees that the Emergency Department Resus Team leader attending Code Blacks or MET calls is a breach of the NMEA 2020 as they assert that this is not prescriptive to NHS ED.
We are seeking further advise and will update our SALHN members.