Who Will Speak For Us?

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! NURSES THREATEN ONGOING INDUSTRIAL ACTION STARTING 1ST DECEMBER.

2010-11-24T18:43:00.008-02:00

4000 Nurses from all over NSW rallied in Homebush on 24th November 2010, and voted unanimously to take onging industrial action to give the people of NSW the Public Hospitals they deserve.

For the past eight years or so, NSW Health and the NSW government have reduced the number of nurses and midwives serving the Community in its public hospitals to ridiculous levels. In some places, one midwife assisting three women in Labour, in others, two nurses attempting to manage 15 bed Emergency wards, 30 bed medical surgical wards with only four nurses to tend the 30 patients. Patient's families having to hire private nurses to care for their loved ones in Public Hospitals. Patients even dying because of poor staffing.....

In Victoria, for the past ten years, there has been a MINIMUM NURSE TO PATIENT RATIO OF 1:4 IN ALL NSW PUBLIC HOSPITALS. If its good enough for Victorians, why isn't it good enough for the People of NSW?

Safe hospitals like those in Victoria are what the Nurses and Midwives are asking the NSW Government to provide the People of NSW. Nurses and midwives have been asking this for SEVEN MONTHS and the answer has continually been "NO". Instead, NSW Health and the NSW Government tried to buy shut the nurses off with a small pay rise provided they stopped demanding better hospitals for the people of NSW- and this time, the Nurses said "NO!" And when they said "NO!", both Carmel Tebbut and Deborah Piccone threatened the Nurses with legal action, yet the Nurses refused to be silent.

The Nurses of NSW are giving the NSW Government until Tuesday, 30th of November to make a serious offer to adequately staff your public hospitals with a MINIMUM NURSE TO PATIENT RATIO OF 1:4 IN ALL NSW PUBLIC HOSPITALS. If such an offer to make NSW Hospitals safe again for patients is not forthcoming, the Nurses themselves will make the hospitals safe again by closing non-urgent beds.

Studies have shown that the death rate for patients in hospitals increses 7% for EACH PATIENT ABOVE THE 1:4 NURSE-PATIENT RATIO. By slashing the numbers of staff in Hospitals, our government has shown how little it values our lives and the lives of our loved ones who are admitted to hospital.

This is not about pay rises, its about quality care for patients in NSW hospitals.

Show your support for safe nurse to patient ratios at www.one2four.com.au .

2010-06-30T04:24:00.001-02:00

Doctors query local control of medical services

The Australian, June 30, 2010

SENIOR doctors have raised the alarm over another element of the federal government's health reform program.

They warn that the original promise that the system would be "run locally" is under threat as states move to set up hospital networks.

Local control was central to Kevin Rudd's original pitch for his health reform plans in March, and at the time was seen as a partial riposte to Tony Abbott's plan to restore local hospital boards.

But doctors from NSW, Victoria and rural Australia say local clinical control faces being severely curtailed by a requirement that doctors and nurses given seats on the networks' governing councils are drawn from neighbouring networks. Senior doctors say the condition -- ostensibly to reduce conflicts of interest -- will ensure clinicians on the councils will be unfamiliar with the issues and have limited ability to influence what goes on.

Sydney emergency specialist Sally McCarthy, president of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, said the issue was "of great concern" and allowing only external clinicians would "completely undermine" the government's pledge for local control.

"I don't think you can read it in any other way . . . than a deliberate move to continue to shut clinicians out of meaningful involvement and decision-making," Dr McCarthy said.

Putting the Care in Healthcare

2010-06-25T09:46:00.001-02:00

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2010-06-19T02:35:00.001-02:00

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SMH: Cancer patients denied surgery

2010-06-08T06:22:00.002-02:00

Cancer patients denied surgery

KATE BENSON

June 8, 2010

HUNDREDS of patients in Sydney, many needing spine and cancer surgery, have been left off hospital waiting lists for up to a year because overworked staff did not file the paperwork.

The mistake, which doctors say has affected more than 800 people, some in acute pain, has forced the health department to order a blitz on the centralised surgery bookings system in western Sydney. But angry surgeons claim some patients have already deteriorated as a result of the fiasco.

The error has also made politically sensitive hospital performance figures - much vaunted by the health department - look better than they are.

A spokeswoman for the Sydney West Area Health Service said about 200 forms were still waiting to be processed but denied 800 people had been affected.

She said 93 per cent of patients needing urgent elective surgery had been treated within the required 30-day time frame.

While most urgent cases were being seen, surgeons said at least 300 patients at Westmead and another 300 at Mt Druitt and Blacktown - some needing surgery for bladder or skin cancer - were never allocated to the list so the performance figures were false. The remaining 200 forms belonged to patients from other hospitals in western Sydney.

The number of cases missing from the lists was the tip of an iceberg, said the chairman of Westmead's medical staff council, Peter Klineberg.

''Most surgeons stopped even trying to put patients forward because they refused to tolerate them getting lost in the system.

''There is a lot of frustration over this, a lot of ill will. This might have seemed like a good idea at the time but it discounted the human factors,'' he said.

Donald MacLellan, the health department's program director of surgery, has been called in to audit the bookings and close the centralised office. But it could take at least six months to resolve the crisis. Hospitals will be ordered to revert to booking their own patients.

''It's a crazy situation but we're just grateful at long last something is being done,'' the chairman of the division of surgery at Westmead Hospital, John Fletcher, said yesterday.

Since March last year, surgeons in western Sydney were told to submit booking forms to a central office in Blacktown, regardless of which hospital would perform the surgery.

The system was put in place by the former chief executive of Sydney West Area Health Service, Steven Boyages.

But a statewide freeze on employing non-clinical staff meant bookings, which should have been entered into the computer system within three days, mounted and were ignored.

Professor Fletcher said surgeons had pleaded with the department to acknowledge the system's failure, but their calls had fallen on deaf ears.

''In some cases, we even had patients allocated to lists but they were not notified, so we had theatre staff standing around expecting them,'' he said.

The introduction on March 1 of the state trauma plan, whereby Westmead received a greater proportion of severely injured patients, would also make it difficult for surgeons to clear the backlog, but staff had been given a guarantee the new bookings office would be adequately staffed and resourced.

Do you know more? kbenson@smh.com.au

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cancer-patients-denied-surgery-20100607-xqu1.html

Calls for Return of Eye Surgery at Katoomba Hospital

2010-05-17T20:46:00.000-02:00

All eyes on Katoomba Hospital

BY SHANE DESIATNIK

28 Apr, 2010 09:00 AM

NSW opposition health spokesperson Jillian Skinner has called for the return of eye surgery at Katoomba Hospital to address a growing waiting list, describing the issue as a “no-brainer”.

Mrs Skinner met a Leura-based specialist on Thursday, April 15 to discuss the regional demand for eye surgery and told the Gazette a short time later Katoomba Hospital has the capacity to help eye patients if funding was allocated.

“Katoomba Hospital has everything it needs — all the equipment and staff — to deliver cataract surgery, except the funding,”Mrs Skinner said.

“It’s not expensive to provide this service, it costs about $3000 per procedure and only takes 1.5 to two hours to do.

“The procedure is being done at Springwood Hospital, but has been reduced from 66 operations per year to just 27.

“It is a false economy not to provide this service to people who desperately need it.”

But the Sydney West Area Health Service said extra eye surgery sessions have commenced at Springwood and Lithgow hospitals to reduce planned surgery waiting times.

Given the high cost of specialised equipment for eye surgery, and to make the best use of public resources, the spokesperson said “it is most efficient to provide eye surgery in specialised centres”.

Mrs Skinner met two women outside Katoomba Hospital who need cataracts removed but had no idea when they will progress in the queue.

Eileen Connell had been on the waiting list for eye surgery since March 2009 to remove a cataract in one eye and said vision in her other eye is also poor. The Gazette understands she has since had her surgery booked for next week.

Single mother of four, Sharon Craufurd, was told two months ago by her doctor she requires eye surgery urgently, with deteriorating vision most likely related to liver failure she suffered in 2004.

“My doctor said I could be legally blind by the end of this year if nothing is done,” Sharon said.

“I got a letter yesterday saying I’m on a waiting list for another 12 months.”

Big turn-out at Springwood health forum

2010-05-17T20:40:00.001-02:00

Big turn-out at Springwood health forum

BMG 12 May, 2010 10:02 AM

Blue Mountains residents packed a public forum at Springwood last week, to have their say on the Federal Government’s health reforms.

Hosted by the Federal Labor candidate for Macquarie, Susan Templeman, the forum at Springwood Sports Club attracted community health workers, nurses, doctors, other health workers and the general public.

Ms Templeman said there were many valuable insights from people about issues that need to be considered as the reforms are implemented.

“There is a clear message from the community that they expect to be consulted about and involved in the roll out of the new independent primary health care organisations and the local hospitals network,” she said.

“And I am very supportive of the views that were put that the 1300 new hospital beds and 2500 new aged care beds need to be supported by additional qualified nursing staff.”

Guest speaker Barbra Monley, a member of the NSW Nurses Association who works at Blue Mountains Hospital, reminded the audience that the best health care required “the right nurse, in the right place, at the right time”.

Chair of the Division of General Practice, Dr Andrew Knight, said that “a lot of sensible people” had been consulted during the development of the Federal Government’s health reforms, but that it was important that local consultation occurred for the next steps.

Ms Templeman said the forum showed there was a strong desire in the community for change in the health system.

“The Rudd Government has the political will to make these historic changes, and Tony Abbott will be going against community wishes if he chooses to block these reforms in the Senate,” she said.

Liberal candidate for Macquarie, Louise Markus — who did not attend the forum — said Blue Mountains residents remain “no better informed as to how many extra doctors, nurses, and aged care places will be provided under the Rudd Labor government’s so-called health reforms”.

“For the last 30 months Kevin Rudd has flown around Australia talking about health reforms. In the last six weeks Mr Rudd has continued talking but cannot say exactly when, where or how these reforms will be delivered.”

Controversial Sydney West Area Health Chief Resigns

2010-05-09T03:19:00.004-02:00

Controversial Sydney West Area Health chief resigns

04 May 10 @ 07:00am by Di Bartok

SYDNEY West Area Health Service chief executive Prof Steven Boyages resigned last week amid controversy over his handling of the job.

Prof Boyages had been in the top job of the area health service, which includes Westmead and Auburn hospitals, for 10 years.

His tenure was dogged by controversy over debts to suppliers and by dissent among senior doctors and nurses over his management style.

Prof Boyages was not available for comment before the Advertiser’s deadline but it has been reported he will transfer to the newly created NSW Clinical Education and Training Institute.

The Advertiser had been told by senior clinicians in recent times that Prof Boyages, an endocrinologist, was not considered a good manager.

“He’s a brilliant clinician but not such a good administrator,’’ one senior specialist told the Advertiser.

Prof Boyages was still working as an endocrinologist while running the area health service.

NSW Health director general Debora Picone has been quoted as saying that Prof Boyages had ``as many supporters as detractors’’.

http://parramatta-advertiser.whereilive.com.au/news/story/controversial-sydney-west-area-health-chief-resigns/

SMH: Hospital rejects surgery patients

2010-04-06T09:43:00.002-02:00

Hospital rejects surgery patients

JULIE ROBOTHAM

April 3, 2010

WESTMEAD HOSPITAL is cancelling surgery at four times the rate the Health Department considers acceptable, and waiting times are so long some surgeons are refusing to add new patients to their operating lists.

About 8 per cent of elective surgery patients at the flagship Sydney University teaching hospital had their operation cancelled on the day of surgery, due to a shortage of post-surgical beds. This was often after fasting and being prepared for theatre, said John Fletcher, chairman of the hospital's surgery division.

This did not include the many patients told not to come to hospital days before their scheduled operation. Those cancellations - which Professor Fletcher said affected up to half of patients for some types of surgery - were not formally recorded.

Population growth, a jump in the proportion of emergency admissions last year from 41 to 45 per cent of all surgery, the designation of Westmead as a major trauma treatment centre, and the rigid enforcement of unrealistic bed budgets were behind the worsening shortage of beds for non-emergency surgery, he said.

Hospitals in western Sydney have suffered staff freezes and bed cuts due to debts that last year reached $26 million. Doctors insist the quality of treatment at Westmead remains excellent, but they are frustrated they cannot accept more patients.

The neurosurgeon Brian Owler said he was under pressure from managers to schedule operations that had virtually no chance of taking place on the nominated day, but had begun to refuse.

''I think it's unfair to patients when the possibility of them being operated on that date is extremely small,'' he said. ''People arrange their lives around it. They take holidays and get relatives to fly interstate to look after them.''

Associate Professor Owler, the Australian Medical Association's NSW councillor for surgeons, said many patients in so-called category 2 - whose procedure should be performed within 90 days - were waiting much longer, sometimes with disabling spinal conditions.

''People suffer pain and numbness and they can't walk,'' he said. ''If they get [high blood pressure] because they can't exercise, that compounds the problem.''

Patrick Cregan, the chairman of NSW Health's Surgical Services Taskforce, said same-day cancellations in western Sydney were about twice the state average, and much higher than the 2 per cent maximum set by NSW Health.

''The fundamental problem is that [the area] doesn't have the resources it needs,'' he said.

Peter Klineberg, chairman of Westmead's medical staff council, said the 854-bed hospital - the state's largest - was effectively capped at 17 elective surgery patients a day who would require an overnight stay.

This was in addition to gynaecology and cardiac patients who are accommodated in separate wards, and day-surgery patients. The hospital could perform almost twice as many operations if beds were available.

Under the state trauma plan released on March 1, Westmead would receive a greater proportion of severely injured patients.

Dr Klineberg said this would exacerbate bed shortages.

A spokeswoman for Sydney West Area Health Service said it was too early to know the impact of the trauma changes.

She said Westmead was meeting elective surgery targets and in the period to last December 90 per cent of patients had their operation on time.

New Commercial: Australian of the Year Speaks on Mental Health

2010-03-29T05:51:00.002-02:00

With Mental Health beds closing, its at least heartening to know that a new commercial will start airing on TV as of tomorrow where Patrick McGorry, Australian of the Year, who has worked in Mental Health for over 25 years calls on both parties to address the urgent need for Mental Health services.
Half of all Australians will suffer mental ill health at some point in their lives.

Watch this video message from Australian of the Year, Patrick McGorry, and join the campaign for mental health reform:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/campaign.php?alias=healthreform&id=979

Andre is Not The Problem

2010-02-04T18:30:00.002-02:00

We Just Thought We'd Remind You

2009-12-29T04:49:00.002-02:00

Back in October, a spokesperson for SWAHS told the Blue Mountains Gazette:

“Katoomba Hospital is in the process of appointing three new medical staff to work in the mental health unit and they are expected to commence work before the end of December.”
Source of this quote

SPEAKING OUT!

2009-11-28T07:59:00.004-02:00

The Community walkers have begun their 53km two day walk from the Blue Mountains Hospital in Katoomba to Nepean Hosital in Penrith. In attendance were local ALP member Phil Koperberg, and Opposition State Health Spokesperson, Jillian Skinner.

The staff from the Hospital involved in the "Who Will Speak For Us" Blog would like to say

THANK YOU!

SMH: Heartbreak Hospitals- The NSW Hospital Crisis.

2009-11-21T03:27:00.002-02:00

Heartbreak hospitals

SMH 21/11/09

...Garling nailed the inadequacies and tragedies of the health system as they had never been nailed before. His 139 recommendations - released a year ago next Friday - provided a rallying point for change that doctors, nurses and the State Government seemed almost universally to agree on.

But just one year on, the feel-good moment may already have passed. Despite notable bright spots, separate reports this week by the Australian Medical Association and an independent audit committee charged with measuring progress point in the same general direction: to well-intended reform plans that are bogging down in the same ponderous bureaucracy they were designed to address...

....Hospitals, Garling told the Herald recently, are ''probably the most complex government enterprise''. Forty per cent of NSW's 100,000-strong workforce are doctors, nurses or other tertiary-qualified clinicians, all with independent professional traditions and strong views on patient care that may not coincide happily with flow charts and memos from central office....[READ MORE]

BMG: HEAL & Bipartisan Politicians To Walk from Katoomba Hospital To Nepean Hospital

2009-11-11T07:37:00.011-02:00

In an earlier post, we pointed out the 51km distance between Katoomba Hospital and Nepean Hospital. To highlight this distance, members of the Community Lobby group HEAL together with some high profile politicians are going to walk the distance over two days on 28th-29th November 2009. Please lend your support!

Hitting the road for Katoomba Hospital

11 Nov, 2009 11:56 AM

Blue Mountains Hospital Equity and Access Lobby (HEAL) has applauded the combined efforts of NSW opposition health spokesperson Jillian Skinner and Member for Blue Mountains Phil Koperberg for delivering a strongly-worded motion in State Parliament about the provision of services at Katoomba Hospital.

Mrs Skinner first brought the motion, calling on the Government to honour its promise to keep the hospital’s maternity unit permanently open, to Parliament in October 2008 but it was not passed and debated.

Last month the motion was unanimously passed in the Legislative Assembly after an amendment by Mr Koperberg was included — for acknowledgment of current concerns about staff recruitment and calling on the Government to direct Sydney West Area Health Service to do all that is necessary to permanently maintain services at Katoomba Hospital.

“We really appreciate their efforts in bringing this motion before Parliament, especially the amendment by Mr Koperberg,” HEAL spokesperson and Blue Mountains deputy mayor Janet Mays said.

The lobby group has planned a two-day walk from Katoomba to Nepean Hospitals for November 28 and 29 to emphasise the distance involved and the importance of maintaining health services in the Blue Mountains.

Mrs Skinner has agreed to walk with HEAL members from Katoomba Hospital to Wentworth Falls and Mr Koperberg has confirmed he will meet the walkers at his Springwood office.

“HEAL is hopeful of meeting the NSW Minister for Health at the completion of the walk to hand her a letter requesting that Katoomba Hospital be reclassified as a rural hospital and that current service and bed closures be prioritised for re-opening,” Ms Mays said.

http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/news/local/news/general/hitting-the-road-for-katoomba-hospital/1674443.aspx

SMH: Children's Ward Bed Closures at Nepean

2009-11-04T08:26:00.004-02:00

Bungling over redundancies leaves hospital short of beds

LOUISE HALL AND NATASHA WALLACE

November 4, 2009

SICK children are spending days stuck in the emergency department of a Sydney hospital because of a bungled plan to lay off hundreds of health-care workers.

Eight pediatric beds at Nepean Hospital have been closed because two experienced nurses took voluntary redundancy, despite assurances by the State Government that no front-line staff would be affected.

The Sydney West Area Health Service has been calling for redundancies but NSW Health intervened six weeks ago to stop more frontline staff leaving.

The director of emergency at Nepean Hospital, Rod Bishop, said the nursing redundancies and long-term understaffing meant the system was not coping. ''I have never seen it this bad in my nearly 30 years in the public hospital system,'' Dr Bishop said.

The decision to cut staff led to the closure of ward beds, including the eight pediatric beds. ''We've had children here for two days because there's not enough beds for them to be admitted to.''...........READ MORE

Another Victory- Mental Health Unit Beds Reopen (BMG)

2009-11-04T07:24:00.002-02:00

Katoomba Hospital mental health unit back at full capacity

BY DAMIEN MADIGAN

4/11/2009 9:19:00 AM

Katoomba Hospital’s mental health unit is operating at full capacity again, four weeks after the Gazette revealed five of its 15 beds were closed due to a staff shortage.

A Sydney West Area Health Service (SWAHS) spokesperson confirmed on Monday that a new doctor had started work in the hospital’s mental health unit.........“If community advocates don’t keep the spotlight on — and I’m regularly attacked for keeping the spotlight on — these things just hang for a long, long time,”.......READ MORE

A Victory: Katoomba Hospital in The NSW Parliament

2009-10-30T08:57:00.006-02:00

On Thursday October 29th 2009, a Motion was introduced and accepted in the Legislative Assembly of the NSW Parliament calling on the Government to direct SWAHS to permanently maintain services at the Blue Mountains District ANZAC Memorial Hospital. The Motion which was accepted reads as follows with its with amendments:

"That this House calls on the Government to honour its commitment to the member for Blue Mountains and local residents that the maternity unit at Blue Mountains hospital will remain open permanently and that this House acknowledges current concerns regarding staff recruitment and calls upon the Government to direct the Sydney West Area Health Service to do all that is necessary to permanently maintain services at Blue Mountains District ANZAC Memorial Hospital."

You can read the entire transcript from the Hansard here.

BMG: Hospital Blood Clinic May Close

2009-10-29T09:26:00.002-02:00

Katoomba Hospital clinic may close

BY SHANE DESIATNIK

28/10/2009 12:16:00 PM

Health bureaucrats have ordered a review of a Katoomba Hospital clinic that at least 57 Blue Mountains residents rely on for regular life-saving treatment of blood disorders.

An internal Sydney West Area Health Service (SWAHS) email between managers in its Western Pathology Cluster dated October 12 requested the clinic be shut down by the end of the month because it was not within the scope or service provision of the pathology division, despite being open for the last 13 years...read more

Reports From Westmead Staff

2009-10-22T15:43:00.009-02:00

We are receiving reports that staff at Westmead Hospital are being threatened for using this blog. Here are some tips:

1) Remember What You Are Doing.

Our focus is the Community we serve. The delivery of health services to the people of NSW is what we are about, and whatever threatens access to health care needs to be corrected.

2) Maintain Online Anonymity.

If you haven't done so already, download the "Tor Bundle" to a 50MB or more flashdrive or your home computer:
https://www.torproject.org/easy-download.html.en
The instructions are on the website.
Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.

3) Get Organized.

It starts with a small group of trusted individuals who meet regularly and discretely. Also, you should become members of your professional association or union if you are not already.

5) Have Courage.
Abusers use fear to control their victims, threatening them if they tell anyone about the abuse. The more abuse is exposed, the less power it has. Let your professional association or union know what is happening. Courage is not a lack of fear, but rather, the ability to act and move forward despite our fear. Fear does terrible things to people if it is allowed to take over. Remember, we are all in this together. Its a mess, but we can work it out. Encourage each other. Sometimes a knowing smile is all it takes.

6) Be Non-Violent and Don't Do Anything Illegal.

Do not breach breach patient confidentiality. Don't slander or make libellous claims against individuals. Do not accuse people of crimes or misconduct online. If someone has committed a crime or is guilty of misconduct, you should inform the proper authorities (police, ICAC etc.)

The Redundancy Debacle: SMH Report

2009-10-21T21:24:00.007-02:00

Frontline Staff were never supposed to go according to the Director General of NSW Health:

Nurses left in lurch after redundancy ban

"MORE than 60 nurses in western Sydney have been left in limbo after NSW Health suddenly barred frontline public hospital staff from taking voluntary redundancy.

....The NSW Nurses Association said that some nurses had sold houses and bought businesses only to be told they could no longer leave, after the political hot potato - the loss of frontline nurses - became public.........

......the director-general of NSW Health, Debora Picone, issued a directive to all area health services on September 21, the day the Herald revealed the extent of the redundancies, that they were ''not to allow voluntary redundancy offers to be made to frontline clinical staff, except in cases where they are occupying management or administrative positions....''

http://www.smh.com.au/national/nurses-left-in-lurch-after-redundancy-ban-20091021-h92t.html

What the Bell-Weather Seat is Saying.

2009-10-21T10:06:00.009-02:00

Doctors, nurses and Community members in the Snowy Mountains Shire told the member for Eden-Monaro they want a Federal take-over of their hospitals, and the money to be managed at the Community level rather than by the Area Health Service where it just disappears in administration:

Health fix wanted

SONIA BYRNES

24/09/2009 6:55:00 PM

"...........Dr Kelly emphasised the federal government was looking at a bottom up approach to health taking power from the top level and giving it back to the people. The proposal suggests an injection of Federal Government funds to iron out the funding inequalities for rural areas who get about $200 per capita less spent on health than their city counterparts.
Monaro Community Cancer Research president Sue Litchfield suggested council be entrusted with the funds.
“Don’t give it to Greater Southern Area Health Service. It’ll just get eaten up in the cesspool of administration.”.......
.......Nurse Bronnie Taylor said the system could not get any worse and that the public was happy to pay more providing they see immediate results...."

http://www.coomaexpress.com.au/news/local/news/general/health-fix-wanted/1632746.aspx

How Far Is Blue Mountains Hospital From Nepean Hospital?

2009-10-19T23:56:00.003-02:00

Imagine you are standing in on Bennalong Point on the Opera House steps looking at the Harbour Bridge in Sydney Harbour.

Now, get in your car, and drive south down Maquarie St. away from the Opera House. Turn right at Albert St., then take the first left on to Phillip St. Drive about 2 minutes, then turn Right at Bridge St. Turn left into George St. through Ultimo, Glebe, Pyrmont, past Five Dock down Parramatta Rd., through Strathfield.

Join the M4 Motorway.

Now drive through Homebush, Granville, Parramatta, Merrylands, and Westmead.

Keep driving through St Mary’s and St. Clair, and when you reach Orchard Hills, you will see a turn off to your left to the Northern Road. Pull over.

You have just driven the same distance that exists between the Blue Mountains Hospital in Katoomba and Nepean Hospital in Penrith- a distance of 51km.

Barking Up The Wrong Tree

2009-10-15T15:40:00.005-02:00

Word has reached us that particular staff are being targeted by management as having contributed to this blog. Staff are being intimidated. Management couldn't have it more wrong. No one enters any information on this blog from a work computer. If you want to know how we access this site and communicate with each other via IM, ask the IT department about the Tor Network. All it takes is a 50MB or more flashdrive.

We are not afraid. We will keep speaking out.
Good luck finding those needles.

Is Australia A Free Country?

2009-10-13T18:50:00.018-02:00

We have received a tip off from someone close to SWAHS executives that this blog is now not only being monitored but attempts at destroying it are being made by planting comments which deliberately name individual persons and accuse them of corruption. The tactic is simple and has been used in dictatorships all over the world, kind of like planting drugs on someone and then calling the Drug Squad. We found two such comments today and have removed them, and have switched on comment moderation.

As stated in an earlier post, this blog is about defending Human Rights, not only ours, but those of the Community we serve. Article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that:

"Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence."

We accuse no particular person of anything. It is not Personnel that need to be changed in NSW Health. What needs to be changed is the culture.

We simply demand the rights granted us under Articles 12 & 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 12
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 19
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

These two basic Human Rights have apparently been denied Mr. Bryan McKee-Hata.
Two injustices don't make justice. Our Human Rights are being attacked, but we do not attack anyone else's rights. If Australians cannot speak up and tell each other what is going on in Australia, can we claim a better Human Rights record than China or Iran?

J'accuse: Traducing a Critic

2009-10-11T20:25:00.007-02:00

A disturbing article in the Sydney Morning Herald which may give some insight into the current culture of fear and intimidation.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/jaccuse-traducing-a-critic-20091009-gqu3.html

Whose Business Is It Anyway?

2009-10-11T13:53:00.011-02:00

There is a Golden Moment in the art of debating where your opponent makes a slip which exposes the main flaw in their argument.
One such golden moment has taken place on this blog in the form of this comment:

"This appears to be the immature ravings of undisciplined, self-centred individuals.
Get a job with another employer and try undermining their business to see how long you last in the workforce.
You are coming across, to reasonably thinking people, as people who want to be paid 'appearance money'. Check your employment details!"
(Source)

Lets take a look at this comment and some of the ideas it presents. The author of the comment suggests that the blog is "undermining their employer's business". Here is the definition of a business:

"Business:
Economic system in which goods and services are exchanged for one another or money, on the basis of their perceived worth. Every business requires some form of investment and a sufficient number of customers to whom its output can be sold at profit on a consistent basis. "
(Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/business.html)

Lets apply this definition of a business to a Public Hospital or Area Health Service. Take the example of Katoomba hospital. Fristly, what is being "exchanged" for the services which the hospital "business" provides and for what "profit"? Does the hospital make a profit? Does it receive something in exchange for the goods and services it provides? Secondly, Who are the investors? The "investors" are actually the tax payers aren't they?
The reality is that Public Health is a public service, not a business. And even if it were a business, who would be the owner of the business? Wouldn't that be the investors? And aren't the investors the tax payers?

What we have here in the conceptualization of Area Health Services as "businesses" is actually the "fallacy of reification" or "misplaced concreteness". An Area Health Service is not a "thing" in itself; it is simply an organized collection of capital and labour directed at providing a public service. The common fallacy that an Area Health Service is a thing in itself is the result of the recognition of corporations as legal entities before the law. But the staff of the Area Health Service don't work "for" the Area Health Service, they work "in" the Area Health Service "for" the public- i.e., they are public servants.

Conceptualizing public health organizations as "businesses" is not only innappropriate since they are public services, but such flawed conceptualizations are actually the root of many of the problems health services currently face. Expecting a public service to operate like a business is doomed to failure, as is conceptualizing a corporation as anything other than a collection of capital and labour.

The investors in Public Health are the Community- don't they have a right to know what their investment is doing for them?

Understanding such concepts are important if one wishes to enter the health debate.

We Will Not Be Silent.

2009-10-08T08:01:00.009-02:00

"There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind." - Virginia Woolf

Despite Internet censorship at work, we are still able to get through, and we will not be silent.

We are Legion. There is no single "mole" or "leak". And therein lies our strength. We are all in this together. We will not be afraid, and we will not be intimidated, and we will not be silent.

We support and encourage each other with a knowing smile and a wink at work, but we don't do our speaking out there, so you needn't have removed internet access from the wards including the Emergency Department so that Doctors can't look something up when they need to.

In the defense of the patients and Community we strive to serve, we are angry but non-violent. We are defending Human Rights here. The right of equal access to health care. The right of peaceful protest. The right to speak out when we see something detrimental to the Community we have been comissioned to serve.

Australia is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are Australians who serve Australians and visitors from other nations to our beautiful city of the Blue Mountains, and we claim those Universal Human Rights for them and for us.

Three New Doctors Are Coming And So Is Christmas

2009-10-07T12:20:00.011-02:00

According to an article in the Blue Mountains Gazette today, the “staffing problems” at Katoomba hospital which have closed five of the Mental Health Beds at the hospital will be resolved by Christmas:

Katoomba Hospital bed closures
BY SHANE DESIATNIK
7/10/2009 3:00:00 PM

One third of the beds in Katoomba Hospital’s new mental health unit remain closed due to a staff shortage on the eve of National Mental Health Awareness Week, but Sydney West Area Health Service (SWAHS) insists it is in the process of resolving the problem by Christmas…......A spokesperson from SWAHS acknowledged last Friday a shortage of doctors resulted in a reduction of patients who can be treated safely in the unit in recent months. “Katoomba Hospital is in the process of appointing three new medical staff to work in the mental health unit and they are expected to commence work before the end of December.”

To help SWAHS stay on track with this promise, we have provided the following countdown to 11am on Christmas Eve:

The Countdown started with 77 days to go.
We thought we'd countdown to 11am on Christmas Eve because that way, if the counter reaches zero and the three doctors haven't materialized, they will still have six hours on Christmas Eve before home time to employ them.

“Political” Is Not a Dirty Word.

2009-10-05T08:16:00.000-02:00

One of the most stupid "arguments" made against the community’s approach to saving their hospital has been that it is “political”- as though somehow, that’s a Bad Thing.

Ironically, the ones attempting to use this fallacious argument are politicians! It’s kind of like an electrician telling you that you can’t change your own light bulbs because that’s “electrical”.

Of course people working to save the hospital from further downgrading and restoring services to the community is political! We live in a Democracy remember? A Democracy means that the people participate in their government rather than the government being a Dictatorship where only “official” politicians should be allowed to have an opinion on how the public is to be treated and how public money is to be spent. Government in a Democracy means participation and scrutiny by the people does it not? So why do our politicians attempt to silence any dissent by labeling it “political” as though politics is some Mystical Religion which only a High Priesthood of “politicians” is allowed admission to?

Watch our new video.

2009-10-02T05:30:00.000-02:00

This video may be downloaded and distributed freely.

Blogger version:

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Mental Health Week at BMDAMH.

2009-09-30T06:44:00.000-02:00

Next week, October 4th-10th 2009 is Mental Health Week.
The Mental Health Unit at Blue Mountains Hospital will be celebrating in a unique way by keeping five of its beds closed, cutting back on Nursing Staff rostered on for each shift and not admitting patients outside of business hours.

From Some Redundant Nursing Staff

2009-09-30T06:09:00.000-02:00

Dear Executives,
We just wanted to say "thanks so much" for the farewell for the "redundant nurses" last week at Nepean Hospital. It was fabulous. Those nine lucky chosen ones whose redundancies you managed to push through (before those nasty unions interfered with an appeal to the Industrial Relations Court) looked absolutely fantastic as you gave them their genuine goldique medallions from Sydney West and their A4 Certificates printed on what must be one of the only dot-matrix printers left in the world.
How could we forget your stirring words Marie as you pointed out what a red letter day it was that for the first time, nurses were being given a "golden handshake" because you think they're redundant?
Do you guys in the Executive ever stop to think what it must be like for us to come to work every day knowing that you consider us on the front-line to be expendable or "worthy of golden handshakes" as you put it?
And just when morale is at an all-time low, you decide to close the hospital Kiosk and replace it with an "interim" one run in our staff dining room. And just to make sure that we knew how little you thought of us, you tore up in front of us the petition we started in the wards and the ED against the closure of the Kiosk. What was your reason for tearing them up again? Oh yes: you "hadn't authorised the petition". How many dictators do you think actually "authorised" petitions made against their actions?
Frankly, we feel abused and betrayed, and your bread and circuses in the form of a BBQ and a colourful new newsletter (the first issue of which announces the closure of the Kiosk) have done little to improve anything. We hold little hope that you care though.
We will not pretend. We will not put on a smile. We will not say we're all right for you.
And we will not forget.

Some Redundant Nurses at Blue Mountains Hospital.

Well That Didn't Last Long

2009-09-30T06:06:00.000-02:00

The brand new Breast Screening Clinic at Blue Mountains Hospital will close over October/November....

...what a surprise.....

Cartoon

2009-09-29T20:31:00.001-02:00

SMH Article 12/8/2009 - Dare We Hope for the Same?

2009-09-07T12:14:00.000-02:00

http://www.smh.com.au/national/westmead-doctors-back-in-charge-20090812-eh4p.html

Westmead doctors back in charge

JULIE ROBOTHAM MEDICAL EDITOR

August 12, 2009

MANAGEMENT structures at the struggling Westmead Hospital will be urgently revised after an external review found alienation and low morale among doctors and nurses could be risking patients' safety.

The report, by a senior Victorian health administrator, Patricia Faulkner, and a Sydney heart specialist, Phil Harris, criticised the removal of doctors and senior nurses from organisational decisions affecting patients. The authors pointed out less than one-third of managers responsible for particular aspects of patient care across the entire western Sydney area were themselves doctors.

According to the report: "Morale at Westmead Hospital is variable, but in pockets is extremely low … Sustained issues in relation to staff morale can lead to issues around quality and safety."

The reviewers found there were long delays in advertising vacancies and recruiting people to vacant clinical roles, while administrative positions were filled much quicker, and even very senior doctors had little control over their department's budget and could not order essential equipment.

Responding to the report, NSW Health's director-general, Debora Picone, told the Herald a general manager for Westmead - Sydney's largest hospital - would be appointed within weeks, to "rebalance" decision-making back towards clinicians.

The review was commissioned earlier this year after the hospital's doctors voted no confidence in the Sydney West Area Health Service's chief executive, Steven Boyages. Professor Boyages has disputed the validity of the doctors' motion.

Professor Picone said she agreed that Westmead's governance structure was "unnecessarily complicated" and it was "a problem" clinicians believed they could not adequately influence management decisions. She confirmed Professor Boyages would remain in his role and said a new clinical council would be appointed at the hospital along with the general manager, to ensure Westmead's interests were sufficiently represented in regional spending and management decisions.

Peter Klineberg, the chairman of Westmead's medical staff council, which represents the hospital's doctors, said a key issue raised at last night's meeting was whether the new general manager would have genuine control over budgets and staff hiring. "We discussed the delegations … Are they real or are they ghost delegations?" he said.

Professor Klineberg said doctors had been assured the new appointee would determine how money was spent, though there would be no funding increase overall.

Reading the Signs of the Times.

2009-09-04T20:48:00.000-02:00

The continuing downgrading of Katoomba Hospital, the removal of frontline clinical staff with an incongruous simultaneous increase in executive management positions at the hospital is a symptom of wider problems in the NSW Health Department. We just need to look at basic facts to realise there is a huge problem.

Fact No. 1: NSW Health has now had five Health Ministers in four years. Doesn't that tell us something?

Fact No. 2: These continual failures and changes in leadership in the NSW Health Department have all been since the NSW Area Health Services were amalgamated into supersized Area Health Services. As recently as 2002, Katoomba Hospital used to be part the "Wentworth Area Health Service" covering Penrith and the Blue Mountains. When the Area Health Services were amalgamated, Katoomba Hospital became part of "Sydney West Area Health Service" which now includes hospitals and community services in an area covering Auburn in Sydney to Portland 150km away.

Fact No. 3: About every 15 years, some new bright spark comes up with the idea of amalgamating the Area Health Services, it becomes a dismal failure, and about fifteen years later they are divided up into smaller Area Health Services again.

Fact No. 4: Amalgamating the Area Health Services does not save any money. Lets say you were the Manager of Critical Care in the Old Wentworth Area Health Service. When the the Area Health Services were amalgamated, your position became redundant and you had to apply for the new position of Manager of Critical Care. If you were not successful in your application for the job, the Area Health Service declares you a "Displaced Person" and is obliged to find you "meaningful employment". That "meaningful employment" may be counting paperclips in the "Quality Unit", but you will still be paid at the rate you were paid in your previous position as Manager of Critical Care. So now two people are being paid for the one position.

Fact No. 5: The five NSW Health Ministers in four years coincides with the amalgamation of the super-sized Area Health Services. Coincidence? Synchronicity? Or is is it just because it has been a dismal failure.

Fact No. 6: Sydney West Area Health Service is now doing a "realignment" of services, doing away with the Network Streams (in typical Newspeak, management is firm in insisting that its not a "restructure" but a "realignment"- which has a new structure....sigh). Yet more "Displaced Persons" on the way?

What are the side effects of all this? Well, centralized management of a Super-sized Area Health Service cannot possibly effectively manage smaller regional facilities so their solution is to centralize services into major hospitals and make all the regional hospitals "train stops on the way" to where the central services are. Problem is, Katoomba Hospital is an hour by ambulance to Nepean Hospital- hence babies born on the highway. Which brings us to Fact No. 7: Katoomba is NOT a suburb of Sydney. I should know, I live here. For all other purposes (eg, postal services) Katoomba is treated as a regional area. If I get a piece of large equipment delivered from Sydney I have to pay for delivery charges outside of Sydney. Yet Katoomba Hospital is not allowed to be called a Rural Hospital, Rural Hospitals are entitled to more funding to attract doctors.

The management of Katoomba Hospital have failed to advocate for the Hospital and instead are the lackeys of the failing Sydney West Area Health Service whose CEO has received two votes of no confidence from Doctors at Westmead Hospital.

Help! I'm Bleeding!

2009-09-04T02:51:00.000-02:00

Despite promises that frontline staff would not be lost as a result of "voluntary redundancies" in Sydney West Area Health Service, three frontline staff of Katoomba Hospital- including two Registered Nurses from the Close Observations Unit have been given voluntary redundancies. What is the "Close Observation Unit" you ask? Well its what used to be called the "High Dependency Unit" of Katoomba Hospital where the critically ill were once managed. Now that it has been downgraded to a "Close Observation Unit" it is staffed by only one nurse on each shift. Well, it takes two staff to perform CPR (Cardiopulmanory Resuscitation) effectively while waiting for the Medical Emergency Team to arrive.
And what about the brand-spanking new Mental Health Unit at Katoomba Hospital? Well guess what? Five of its fifteen beds have been closed since May 2009. The reason? Sydney West Area Health Service will not allow them to recruit a doctor to replace the one who left to join the management of the hospital in a newly created management position. Too many chiefs, not enough indians- which is basically the whole problem with Sydney West Area Health Service. And now that they're in the red financially, frontline staff at Katoomba Hospital are among the positions being shed.

Hands Off Katoomba Hospital!: 'Hospital bewilderment' BMG Letters to The Editor 19/08/09

2009-09-04T00:00:00.000-02:00

Hands Off Katoomba Hospital!: 'Hospital bewilderment' BMG Letters to The Editor 19/08/09