NSW: Senior clinician warned of patient neglect in leaked memo

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2003
NSW: Senior clinician warned of patient neglect in leaked memo

By Graeme Webber

SYDNEY, Dec 13 AAP - An emergency department at one of two Sydney hospitals plagued
by deaths through maltreatment was marred by patient neglect and could not be operated
safely, a senior clinician warned in a memo leaked today.

The memo to Macarthur Area Health Service general manager Jennifer Collins on September
25 last year outlined various shortcomings at Camden and Campbelltown hospitals, describing
them as "clearly substandard".

Ms Collins was transferred to a $165,000 job elsewhere in the Health Department after
the hospitals scandal broke, but NSW Health Minister Morris Iemma last Thursday gave her
a week to explain why she should not be sacked.

Opposition health spokesman Barry O'Farrell today demanded her immediate sacking without
compensation, claiming she had misled a parliamentary committee by saying she first learned
of the controversy in November 2002 - two months after the memo was sent.

A devastating Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) report has since found that
in four years 19 people had died after being maltreated at the hospitals.

"Alarm bells should have been ringing when this email landed on Ms Collins' desk on
September 25, 2002," Mr O'Farrell said.

"It shows the issues at Camden and Campbelltown Hospitals were being discussed at a
critical care level well before the HCCC was eventually called in."

Ms Collins was on leave and could not be contacted for comment, a spokesman for Mr Iemma said.

Camden's emergency department was "marked by inefficiency, long patient delay and,
most seriously, patient neglect", the memo from the Department of Emergency Medicine said.

Ms Collins was warned the emergency wing "cannot be operated safely" without significant
additional resources while "nursing care and medical staffing is inadequate (often bordering
on incompetent)".

"I feel I will not reliably be able to be confident that the Macarthur Health Service's
emergency departments offer the patients ... state-of-the-art, high-quality, efficient
and compassionate emergency care," the memo's author said.

"The staff morale is low, the safety and attitude of patients and staff alike suffers
and the opportunity for medical oversight and error increases without a meaningful and
comprehensive reform of departmental philosophy and work practices."

"The current situation in the emergency department is one marked by inefficiency, long
patient delay and, most seriously, patient neglect."

Non-fatal botches outlined by the HCCC include a 78-year-old woman who had the wrong
breast removed in a mastectomy and a sick 10-day-old baby almost died after waiting nearly
two hours for attention at the Campbelltown emergency department.

Two doctors have been suspended and nine more have been referred to the NSW Medical
Board, which has authority to discipline and deregister doctors.

Bret Walker SC will head a royal commission-style inquiry into both hospitals while
the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is investigating the nurses' claims
of intimidation, the offer of hush money and the shredding of key health records.

AAP gmw/cjh/JLW

KEYWORD: HOSPITALS NIGHTLEAD

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