Health Legislation (Ratios and Other Matters) Amendment Regulation 2024

1Short title

This regulation may be cited as the Health Legislation (Ratios and Other Matters) Amendment Regulation 2024.

2Commencement

This regulation commences on 1 September 2024.

3Regulation amended

This part amends the Hospital and Health Boards Regulation 2023.

4Amendment of s 40 (Nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios applying to particular acute adult wards—Act, s 138B)

(1)Section 40(1), ‘schedule 5’—
omit, insert—

schedule 5, part 1—

(2)Section 40(3) and (4)—
omit.

(3)Section 40(5)—
renumber as section 40(3).

5Insertion of new ss 40A and 40B

After section 40—
insert—

40AMidwife-to-patient ratios applying to postnatal maternity wards—Act, s 138B

(1)This section applies in relation to a postnatal maternity ward in a public sector health service facility stated in column 1 of the table in schedule 5, part 2.

(2)From the date stated in column 2 of the table opposite the facility, the minimum number of midwives who must be engaged in delivering health services to postnatal patients in the ward is the number of postnatal patients divided by 6.

(3)In this section—

postnatal maternity ward means a maternity ward in which health services are provided to postnatal patients.

postnatal patient means each of the following persons—

(a)a person receiving care after giving birth;

(b)a newborn baby of a person mentioned in paragraph (a).

40BRounding of minimum number of nurses or midwives

(1)If a minimum number of nurses or midwives worked out under this part is less than 1, the number is taken to be 1.

(2)Otherwise, if a minimum number of nurses or midwives worked out under this part is not a whole number, the number must be rounded to the nearest whole number (rounding one-half downwards).

Example—

For the morning shift in an acute adult ward with 7 patients, the number worked out under section 40(2)(a) is 1.75, so the minimum number of nurses or midwives required is 2.

6Amendment of sch 5 (Wards subject to minimum nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios)

(1)Schedule 5, heading, ‘Wards subject to minimum nurse-to-patient’—
omit, insert—

Nurse-to-patient

(2)Schedule 5, authorising provision—
omit, insert—

sections 40 and 40A

(3)Schedule 5, after authorising provisions—
insert—

Part 1 Acute adult wards

(4)Schedule 5, part 1, table, entry for Townsville Hospital, first column, after ‘Townsville’—
insert—

University

(5)Schedule 5—
insert—

Part 2 Postnatal maternity wards

Column 1	Column 2
Public sector health service facility	Ratio start date
Cairns Hospital	1 September 2026
Gold Coast University Hospital	1 September 2026
Logan Hospital	1 July 2027
Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital	1 September 2025
Sunshine Coast University Hospital	1 July 2027
Townsville University Hospital	1 September 2025

7Regulation amended

This part amends the Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Regulation 2021.

8Amendment of sch 1 (Extended practice authorities and departmental standards)

(1)Schedule 1, part 1, entry for Midwives, ‘3’—
omit, insert—

4

(2)Schedule 1, part 1, entry for Registered nurses, ‘4’—
omit, insert—

5