By Clair Weaver and Linda Silmalis From: The Sunday Telegraph February 01, 2009
THE full extent of the disease plaguing the NSW health system can be revealed, with an analysis showing every one of the state's 220 public hospitals is either battling to pay bills, struggling to attract staff or short of beds.
Experts have told The Sunday Telegraph the health crisis has for the first time permeated the entire state, extending from major Sydney hospitals to rural and regional centres in Moree, Broken Hill and Albury.
Dr Brian Morton, president of the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), said the state of the public health system had plunged to an unprecedented low.
"(The system) is basically broke and all the health services are in trouble,'' he said.
Among major problems blighting the system are:
* All of the eight area health services are facing major funding, staffing and supply shortages.
* New fears of deadly superbug outbreaks, as cleaning budgets are slashed across NSW, which already has Australia's highest rate of hospital-acquired infections.
* NSW Health's finances are a "significant problem'', according to the Auditor-General's Office, with a "large number of errors detected during the audit process'' as well as missed deadlines.
* Patients being denied basic drugs, medical supplies and quality food because of cost-cutting.
Dr Morton said some public hospitals in central Sydney claimed to have been coping. as recently six to 12 months ago.
"But we have since had them say they have got the same problems, as well, now - it's across the system,'' he said.
The public health scandal, set to derail further the already destabilised Rees government, has prompted a deluge of emails and calls from staff to The Sunday Telegraph.
According to one damning email, standards at one leading NSW hospitals have fallen so low that equipment meant for single use is being re-used.
The explosive email, sent by Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service shared services acting director Anne Green to staff on January 8, followed a pre-audit review at Royal North Shore Hospital.
Ms Green said surveyors found the infection control unit to be "under-resourced''.
"Single use items being re-used; instruments being washed in hand-basins,'' the email said. Other problems included untidy, cluttered and ``dirty'' treatment, drug stores and utility rooms.
Dr Tony Joseph, chairman of the medical staff council at Royal North Shore, said the hospital had slipped from the top 10 per cent in NSW, in accreditation ranking, to the bottom half.
Dr Joseph said that if single-use equipment was being re-used, it would be "a major concern".
"What they are doing to health services is a disgrace,'' he said.
Dr Joseph is worried about patients picking up dangerous, drug-resistant infections because of cutbacks to cleaning.Last month, the hospital, which constantly struggles with bed shortages, had an outbreak of the life-threatening superbug vancomycin-resistant enterococcus.
Cutbacks to food supplies meant patients would be denied proper nutrition, hindering their recovery, Dr Joseph said.
At Port Macquarie Hospital's oncology unit last week, patients had to wait in pain after morphine supplies ran out. A similar drama occurred at Dubbo.
``Morphine is not a very expensive drug to buy, so that's unacceptable,'' Dr Joseph said.
At Bowral Hospital, a lift was left broken for six weeks. Rubbish and tea trolleys had to be wheeled past surgeons and patients in operating theatres.
At Bathurst Hospital, a shortage of batteries means anaesthetic pumps cannot be operated. Nurses say they have to buy batteries to run equipment.
Dr Bruce McGarity, medical staff council chairman at Bathurst, said the hospital's bungled redevelopment was causing problems and staff feared vital repairs would be shelved because of the State's financial woes.
Delays in paying suppliers have reached critical levels, with businesses blacklisting hospitals.
A pathology supplier has put Westmead Hospital on ``credit hold'' until its bills are paid.
Doctors at Coffs Harbour Hospital are pleading for extra staff overnight to prevent ``unacceptable clinical risk'' to patients.
At Dubbo, running out of basic supplies is an ``everyday'' occurrence.
Dr Dean Fisher, medical staff council chairman at Dubbo, said almost half its doctors were looking for jobs outside the service.
A threatened strike by doctors over unpaid wages was aborted last week, but the Rural Doctors Association (RDA) said the issue remained unresolved.
``The centralised control of hospitals means nobody is accountable,'' Liberal health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said. ``We are at ... a point where things could get out of control.''
Socrates says: "Do we need to say more? Is 2010 or 2011 going to be any better?"
