Care Of Patients Being 'neglected'
Newcastle Herald
Saturday March 1, 2008
PATIENT care at John Hunter Hospital is dangerously poor and at an all-time low according to a senior surgeon who has left the public system after 16 years.
Respected consultant Dr James O'Sullivan is the fourth orthopedic surgeon to leave John Hunter Hospital in two years, citing systemic issues.He says he will not be the last because conditions at the hospital are getting progressively worse."Emergency work isn't getting done, and there's nothing ever written about that," Dr O'Sullivan said."The recent publicity about [Royal North Shore Hospital] is the tip of the iceberg."Patient care seems to cost money, therefore patient care is neglected."Dr O'Sullivan detailed a case where an elderly woman with an open ankle fracture was transferred to John Hunter Hospital from Maitland last year."She went straight to the ward and didn't come to fixation for three days whereby I took the dressing down in theatre to find the bone was out of the skin," Dr O'Sullivan said."It's just Third World kind of care, just appalling."I have had patients transferred from other hospitals to the emergency department and basically stuck in a corner waiting for us to see them, and not reassessed with a major pelvic injury and bleeding."The [emergency department] just lurches from crisis to crisis."In another case a patient undergoing spinal surgery was in theatre for nine hours instead of four while surgeons went through three sets of instruments to find adequately sterilised equipment. Dr O'Sullivan said he had repeatedly raised his concerns with the department head, who met with Hunter New England Health chief executive officer Nigel Lyons earlier this month, and the heads of clinical governance and administration.Hunter New England Health director operations acute networks Michael Di Rienzo denied this week denied that any "major issues" had been raised with him or Dr Lyons.He said it was unfortunate that Dr O'Sullivan had decided to leave, but some of the issues he had raised were being worked through.Operating theatre time had been extended, issues in the hospital's sterilisation unit were being addressed, and a new plan had been put in place to better manage orthopedic patients coming through the emergency department."I think to some extent [surgeons'] concerns have been met to the best of our ability," Mr Di Rienzo said.Accord on health Page 27
© 2008 Newcastle Herald