Victoria improves nurse and midwife to patient ratios

On 18 February 2025, the Victorian Government introduced amendments to the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act, to put more nurses and midwives on shift — at all hours of the day. The legislation will see more nurses in the state’s busiest metropolitan and regional emergency departments (EDs), intensive care units (ICUs), high dependency units (HDUs) and coronary care units (CCUs), and more midwives in maternity wards.

Extensive consultation with nurses and midwives, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and health services has resulted in the new ratios, which secure:

• the 1:1 nurse to occupied bed ‘gold standard’ ratio in ICUs on all shifts for all Level 1 and 2 hospitals, meaning that every occupied ICU bed has a dedicated nurse assigned to it at all times with ICUs also requiring a team leader and liaison nurse for the first time;
• improved staffing ratios in resuscitation cubicles in EDs on morning shifts, which bring morning shifts in line with afternoon and night shifts;
• a 1:4 midwife to patient ratio in postnatal and antenatal wards on night shifts (down from 1:6); and
• an in-charge nurse on night shifts in standalone HDUs and CCUs.
   

“We’re strengthening ratios — because it means better care for Victorians and more support for our hard-working nurses and midwives,” Victoria’s Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas said, the changes that are intended to improve care across the state’s health services.

In Victoria, nurse to patient and midwife to patient ratios were first introduced in 2000, with the state becoming the first in Australia to enshrine nurse- and midwife-to-patient ratios in law — in 2015. The improved ratios are backed by a $101.3 million investment, to support health services with hiring or rostering additional nurses and midwives.

“Anyone who’s experienced the incredible care of our nurses and midwives knows just how special their work really is,” Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said. “These reforms will mean an extra pair of hands, and an extra set of eyes, for some of our most precious patients.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Tempura