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Speaker 1: Now, in April this year, it was reported that the

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Speaker 1: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Royal Darwin Hospital was no

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Speaker 1: longer treating children born before thirty two weeks gestation because

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Speaker 1: of a lack of staff. Now, at the time, the

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Speaker 1: Health Department had said with no time frame for when

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Speaker 1: it would be caring for younger babies. Again, well, they

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Speaker 1: had no time frame, but the department chief Executive Officer,

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Speaker 1: doctor Marco Bressino, had said that because of the volume

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Speaker 1: and level of patient care required in the NIKU at

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Speaker 1: Royal Darwin Hospital, that the department had temporarily adjusted the

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Speaker 1: acceptance criteria, downgrading from critical or clinical I should say,

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Speaker 1: service level six to level four. Now, we'd spoken to

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Speaker 1: the Secretary of the Nursing and midwif Reunion, Cath Hatcher,

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Speaker 1: about this, but it seems that some of the info

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Speaker 1: that she'd been given may not have been entirely accurate.

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Speaker 2: Kath joins me on the line right now. Good morning

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Speaker 2: to you.

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Speaker 3: Cas Oh, good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: Kath.

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Speaker 1: At the time, I know you'd said that there was

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Speaker 1: only one nurse aten hospital with the specialist qualifications to

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Speaker 1: care for babies in neonatal intensive care.

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Speaker 2: Is that the case.

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Speaker 3: No, it isn't so. The information that I had received

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Speaker 3: through one of the reliable professionals there on the sixth

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Speaker 3: floor at the NIKU department was incorrect, or maybe I

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Speaker 3: interpret it to be incorrect, But I would like to

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Speaker 3: make an apology for the NIKU nurses or Neonatal Intensive

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Speaker 3: Care Unit nurses at will Darwin Hospital and to the

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Speaker 3: medical staff and to the wider community of Darwin that

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Speaker 3: the information or statement that I had made about that

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Speaker 3: six weeks ago was totally incorrect. And they assure me

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Speaker 3: that there is thirty two qualified ventilated nurses out of

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Speaker 3: the fifty three current nursing staff in the NICU unit

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Speaker 3: who can facilitate and care for the babies requiring intubation

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Speaker 3: and caring for those extreme premature infants from twenty four

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Speaker 3: weeks gestation and beyond, and that there are also five

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Speaker 3: near natologists. And I'm also led to believe that you

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Speaker 3: said it. They were downgraded to a level four unit

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Speaker 3: and they've been increased to a level five until they

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Speaker 3: get a permanent neonatologist or not a permanent sorry wrong wording,

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Speaker 3: the head of neonatologists to be appointed, then they will

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Speaker 3: go back up to a level six again. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: so it's business as usual, PADI. That's good to hear

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Speaker 3: it is, and they can care for those real premature

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Speaker 3: babies from the twenty four weeks or even sometimes twenty

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Speaker 3: three weeks and beyond. And the ones that have always

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Speaker 3: needed to and will currently go into stay are those

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Speaker 3: that are requiring surgery immediately after birth. They might have

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Speaker 3: their heart on the wrong side of the chest, or

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Speaker 3: their major blood vessels all a bit twisted or something,

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Speaker 3: and they will usually go still inside mum as a

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Speaker 3: pregnant woman and down to either Melbourne or wherever they

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Speaker 3: can get the best care for that mother and baby.

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Speaker 3: And when mum has the baby, then they're ready on

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Speaker 3: standby to do that emergency to emergency surgery on the

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Speaker 3: infant that we cannot do and have never been able

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Speaker 3: to do here in Royal Dalen Hospital.

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Speaker 1: Well, catch that sounds like it's would use and and

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Speaker 1: you know, and while those numbers that we initially have

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Speaker 1: may have been incorrect, it sounds like we have got

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Speaker 1: plenty of staff there able to care for the premi babies.

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Speaker 1: And I know that for any territory in listening, that

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Speaker 1: is going to be something that you know, that gives

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Speaker 1: them that peace of mind if they are pregnant that

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Speaker 1: should their baby arrive early, that they are able to

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Speaker 1: get that care that's needed here in the end to

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Speaker 1: But if they need to go into state, that is

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Speaker 1: also an option.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I'm sorry if I put some scare factor

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Speaker 3: into the community with the mothers and the babies, and

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Speaker 3: the mothers that are you know, just pregnant or heavily

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Speaker 3: pregnant and somewhere in between, that the will In Hospital

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Speaker 3: has the best care and the great staff and medical

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Speaker 3: staff to look after their infant if it happens to

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Speaker 3: be born early.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, no, I'm pleased hear that.

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Speaker 1: A big shout out to those staff at the NICU ward.

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Speaker 1: I know that they must do an incredibly tough job

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Speaker 1: to be really hard, you know when those some of

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Speaker 1: the little bubs born so early. I'm so cap Just

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Speaker 1: tell us again because I know that a few months ago, definitely,

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Speaker 1: it was being reported that they'd been downgraded from clinical

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Speaker 1: service level six to a level four.

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Speaker 2: But you're saying that they've now gone back up to

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Speaker 2: a five. Is that right?

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Speaker 3: Apparently that time as a level four was as a

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Speaker 3: small intrment. I don't know how long it lasted four

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Speaker 3: but it was very short lived and they were able

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Speaker 3: to go back to a level five and they can

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Speaker 3: still carry on as business as usual. And I'm told

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Speaker 3: by the chief nurse and move a free officer that

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Speaker 3: they'll go back to a level six once they get

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Speaker 3: ahead of a neonatology department and they'll be able to

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Speaker 3: go therefore, with the medical part of the unit, go

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Speaker 3: back to a level six.

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Speaker 2: And Cap, how nurses feeling about that.

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Speaker 3: I think they're very excited that they are working at

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Speaker 3: the full capacity and that hopefully this apology will lay

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Speaker 3: any stress that I've impacted on them. About six weeks ago,

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Speaker 3: I'm sure that they were already having mental and physical

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Speaker 3: exhaustion anyway, caring for those beautiful little babies in the

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Speaker 3: niku and having someone from responsible union official saying that

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Speaker 3: it was totally the opposite and once again my apologies

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Speaker 3: for that.

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Speaker 1: So Cap, I will say, though usual, I will say,

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Speaker 1: though we certainly you know, we reached out to the

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Speaker 1: Health Minister at the time as well, and also had

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Speaker 1: reached out to the department and weren't provided response. So

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Speaker 1: I will say that you know that I would have

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Speaker 1: expected that they would have provided some level of detail

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Speaker 1: as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, yeah, but maybe they were too busy to

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Speaker 3: comment at the time or were unable to get the

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Speaker 3: full story at the time.

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Speaker 1: Not here maybe Heykasa, how are things going more broadly

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Speaker 1: with some of the numbers staffing wise across the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory at the moment when it comes to our nurses.

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Speaker 3: Right across the territory, it has improved over the last

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Speaker 3: few months to increase of fourteen percent extra as permanent staff,

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Speaker 3: and then there's about a small decrease in the amount

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Speaker 3: of agency staff that are being utilized, and there is

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Speaker 3: still a small or certain areas. You know, some areas

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Speaker 3: are doing okay for stuff, but certainly will Darwin, there's

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Speaker 3: still got some areas that need more staff, whether it's casual, pool,

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Speaker 3: agency or permanent staff. But some of the areas are

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Speaker 3: still doing it tough with low numbers. You're not to

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Speaker 3: their full capacity of stuff, so there's still some big

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Speaker 3: over time and hours on already what they do a

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Speaker 3: full time shifts.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, cath I really appreciate you coming on this morning.

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Speaker 1: I know that you know that the nurses in the

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Speaker 1: NIKU would appreciate you know the apology that you've provided

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Speaker 1: as well. Somebody's just messaged through and said this Union

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Speaker 1: lady is very gracious and completely owning her error. I

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Speaker 1: wish everybody would do that when something goes wrong. So look,

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Speaker 1: it's you know, I know that sometimes we're provided detail

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Speaker 1: at different.

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Speaker 2: Points it may or may not be correct.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm sure that those nurses would appreciate you

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Speaker 1: coming on either this morning.

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Speaker 3: I hope so. And thank you very much for having

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Speaker 3: me Katie anytime.

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Speaker 1: CAAs greatly appreciate it. Thank you, We'll talk to you

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Speaker 1: again soon