VIC: Nurses drop bans plan after truce on risk to newborns

AAP General News (Australia)
12-17-1998
VIC: Nurses drop bans plan after truce on risk to newborns

MELBOURNE, Dec 17 AAP - Nurses concerned about newborn babies being put at risk by the
treatment of sick adults in a Victorian hospital maternity ward today decided not to impose
industrial bans after fruitful talks with management.

Frankston Hospital, in Melbourne's south-east, agreed to a range of measures which averted
industrial action, Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Belinda Morieson said.

A special eight-bed transit lounge for sick adults would be set up in the maternity ward
with separate staff and an admissions and discharge policy to better coordinate the patients,
Ms Morieson said.

Under the agreement, no surgical patients would be put in the same room as a mother and
baby.

The hospital also agreed to go on by-pass once the transit lounge and six emergency
department beds were full.

"The nurses agreed not to impose bans at this stage," Ms Morieson said.

They also called on the state government to provide more beds to the area.

The practice of using spare maternity beds for surgical patients has been criticised by
Opposition Health spokesman John Thwaites, who said it increased the risk of infection to
newborn babies.

Frankston mother Kate Hammersley said earlier her newborn son Christopher contracted golden
staph during his four-day stay at the hospital last month.

Premier Jeff Kennett said the issue had been "blown up out of all proportion".

"The reality is there has been no cross-infection in the three years in which this has been
happening because it is only people with very low or no risk that are put into that
situation," he told reporters.

The practice was appropriate if it was clinically approved by doctors, he said.

"What we are trying to do is make good use out of our system."

He rejected claims psychiatric patients had been put in the midwifery section.

AAP lmw/er/rap/de

KEYWORD: NEWBORN (CARRIED EARLIER)

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