Hazzard on Thursday said he had consulted other doctors who shared his shock over the evidence heard at Wednesday’s parliamentary inquiry into ambulance ramping at the state’s hospitals.
NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard during a tour of the new Royal Prince Alfred HealthOne facility at Green Square on Thursday.Louise Kennerley
The inquiry heard that to be admitted due to increasing overcrowding,which the minister described as “rubbish”.
Hazzard urged any doctor claiming that emergency departments were like “a war zone” and “basically,the Third World” to see firsthand the experience of hospitals abroad.
“They[ought] to go and work in the Third World. That’s a ridiculous proposition,” he said. “I spoke to some emergency specialists this morning who said they couldn’t believe those comments were made.”
Hazzard suggested even the state’s strongest clinicians could lack skills to manage “patient flow-through”,but said he was sympathetic to the health sector strains exacerbated by the pandemic.
Emergency medicine physicians Dr Pramod Chandru (left) and Dr James Tadros at the inquiry on Wednesday.Renee Nowytarger
“They really need to be looking at just what’s going on around the rest of the country ... I think that those doctors who made those comments are obviously in areas where it was particularly under pressure.”
He said that there was no record of any patient waiting up to 36 hours for admission to an emergency department,adding “it never happened”.
It followed Wednesday’s first hearing of the Labor-led upper house inquiry into ambulance ramping – where paramedics are stuck outside hospitals waiting for hours to offload patients.
The inquiry heard patients had a 10 per cent greater chance of dying within seven days of admission after experiencing delays in admission.
A tale of desperation from the frontline of a western Sydney hospital
Dr James Tadros:“I’ve spent hours trying to sort out an 88-year-old lady in kidney failure who has been waiting six hours. I had to go out to the waiting room to pick her up in a wheelchair,found her laying down across three chairs and some bystanders were helping her daughter to slowly move her around because she was so weak. This is basically Third World. They just keep prioritising the ambulance offloads who aren’t the sickest. It took me 20 minutes just to get her into a wheelchair then wheel her around to find a space to see her.”
Dr Pramod Chandru:“What a use of time.”
Dr Tadros:“The nurses just can’t start anything for this woman while she’s out there. They cannot give any slow intravenous fluids,but she’s 88,so a fluid bolus will just put her into pulmonary edema and might kill her. Maybe that will get her a bed. I just wrote up 500ml to try and do something for her.”
[Twelve hours after she first presented,six hours after she was first seen]
Dr Tadros:“Remember the 88-year-old? Her abdomen is riddled with metastatic cancer of unknown primary. Twelve hours later,she finally got to a bed in time for me to tell her that she’s probably going to imminently die from this. The worst part is,her and her daughter have been so nice the whole time despite our rubbish care. She still hasn’t had the fluids.”
Dr Chandru:“God that makes me feel worse.”
Emergency specialist James Tadros was among health professionals,union officials and experts to give candid testimony about the reality of a hospital system they say is failing patients daily.
Dr Tadros spoke of feeling disillusioned with the health sector,reading from text messages he had sent to a colleague during a shift this year about his hospital’s “Third World” conditions and “rubbish care.”
“They just keep prioritising the ambulance offloads who aren’t the sickest,” he wrote in the message expressing frustration over delays to the treatment of an 88-year-old patient.
Nurse Kelly Falconer,who appeared at the inquiry on Wednesday.Renee Nowytager
Senior nurse of 25 years and union branch president Kelly Falconer also gave evidence of “Third World” conditions,adding that the system was failing patients and nurses,causing them to leave the profession.
In a statement on Wednesday,a NSW Health spokeswoman said almost 84 per cent of ambulance patients were transferred to an emergency department within 30 minutes,which is the best in the country.
Hazzard on Thursday visited the upcoming Royal Prince Alfred HealthOne facility in Green Square,which will provide out-of-hospital healthcare services when it opens in 2023.
Sydney Local Health District chief executive Lou-Anne Blunden said the health centre was designed to ease the pressure on hospitals and divert unnecessary attendances from emergency departments.
Hazzard will attend a meeting of federal,state and territory health ministers on Thursday to discuss ways to attract people into nursing,after a new National Skills Commission report found registered nurses are the most in demand skilled workers in a tightening labour market,with more than 9000 jobs vacant.
“I’m quite hopeful that we’ll see more positive outcomes in the next few months as the federal government works with all states and territories to deal with those issues,” he said.
“I think there’s a bit more to do across the entire country in terms of getting better movement of patients through hospitals.”
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