Nurse-to-patient ratios agreed by Lower House

Health Minister and Macedon MP Mary-Anne Thomas introduced the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2025, noting that it would improve the safety and quality of patient care for all Victorians as well as workload arrangements for our nurses and midwives.

If passed, the new ratios would be phased in over three stages to give healthcare services time to implement staff changes.

‘The improvements will be phased in at 25% of the additional staffing implemented from the day after Royal Assent, 75% from 1 December 2025 and 100% from 1 July 2026,’ Ms Thomas said.

South-West Coast MP Roma Britnell said the opposition isn’t against the bill but had concerns about how hospitals would meet these ratios and actually deliver them.

She argued that the government has not done the work to say where they are getting the additional workforce from or how many they will need.

‘How can we believe that this will work effectively and not just put more pressure on nurses and more pressure on the wonderful management and staff that are doing their damnedest to make their hospitals the best they can be?

‘Whilst trying to improve patient ratios in intensive care, high-dependency units, coronary care units and emergency departments is all very noble, the problem is: what will it do to other areas?’

Supporting the bill, Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke recounted some of his own recent experiences that required the help of nurses.

‘From being blown up, from being in a plane accident and from a cancer scare, it was not a place I wanted to be, but without nurses I would be absolutely six feet under,’ he said.

‘I am so proud to be standing here today once again supporting our Victorian nurses, because they support us. They support every Victorian.’

Sandringham MP Brad Rowswell said Victorian health services were under enormous financial strain.

‘It is unclear if the allocated funding will be sufficient to meet the higher costs of employing more casual agency nurses if hospitals are unable to recruit permanent staff,’ he said.

‘Given the financial pressures throughout Victoria’s health system, the new nursing ratios could lead to further budget constraints elsewhere, such as planned surgery capacity.’

Geelong MP Chris Couzens said she was proud to speak in support of the bill.

‘The new ratios are the result of extensive consultation with nurses and midwives, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and health services and will be set in stone,’ she said.

‘The one-to-one nurse-to-occupied-bed ratio in ICUs on all shifts for all level 1 and level 2 hospitals mean that every occupied ICU bed will have a dedicated nurse assigned to it at all times.’

In 2015, Victoria became the first state in Australia to enshrine nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios into law.

Euroa MP Annabelle Cleeland questioned the effectiveness of mandated ratios when there is not the workforce to fill them.

‘While this bill has the right intent, I have to ask, what good are mandated ratios when the hospitals they apply to are crumbling under the weight of a broken system,’ she said.

‘We support measures that strengthen our health system, but this bill is nothing but a band aid on a gaping wound.’

Wendouree MP Juliana Addison said enshrining stronger, safer specific patient ratios within law protects patients and the healthcare workforce.

‘Victorian nurses and midwives are skilled, hardworking and vital, and this has been brought to everyone’s attention through their incredible work in the wake of the COVID pandemic,’ she said.

‘Increasing staffing and supervision during nights in these critical units will only benefit these patients and their staff, and I fundamentally believe it will give a level of comfort to family and loved ones worried about their loved one in our hospitals.’

Brunswick MP Tim Read said The Greens welcomed the bill but were disappointed to see mental health services left out.

‘Sadly, the bill before us today does not extend to mental health services, which also happens to be an overdue election promise of this Labor government,’ he said.

‘The lack of legislated ratios or staffing profiles when many other nurses are provided with this protection inevitably leaves the mental health workforce feeling like they are not an equal and important specialty within the nursing profession.’

After passing the Legislative Assembly, the bill has proceeded to the Legislative Council for its consideration.

You can read the transcripts of the debate in the Legislative Assembly in the Hansard of 19 February 2025 and 6 March 2025.