AMA’s campaign to save underfunded public hospitals, patients at risk of dying

The Australian Medical Association is calling on Aussies to “vote for their public hospital” at the upcoming election, to stop patients dying. SEE THE WORST WAITING LISTS.

Exclusive: Patients are being “starved” and left in pain while desperate doctors are suicidal as Australia’s underfunded public hospitals buckle under pressure

The crisis has forced doctors to declare war on the major political parties ahead of this year’s federal election demanding an extra $20.5 billion be invested in Australia’s crisis-ridden public hospitals.

Warning there are “lives at risk” they want more staff, more beds and more funding to cope with the pandemic, end the ramping of ambulances outside hospitals and the record breaking-elective surgery backlog cleared.

The Australian Medical Association will today launch their “Clear the hospital logjam” campaign that asks people to “vote for their public hospital” at the upcoming election.

It comes as a new study has found the pressures in the health system are so extreme one in 10 Australian healthcare workers thought about suicide or self-harm during the pandemic.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid warns Australians are in danger of losing their access to universal healthcare. Picture: Supplied

Hospitals are operating in crisis mode with some patients waiting five to seven years to be seen by public hospital specialists before they can even get on a surgery waiting list.

Some hospital administrators are refusing to put patients on surgery waiting lists at all because they are “full”, doctors have revealed.

Patients have divulged how they were “starved” – ordered to be nil-by-mouth for three days in a row ahead of scheduled surgery that each day was cancelled because of staff and operating theatre shortages.

Others unable to walk were left lying in their own excrement.

“Australians are in danger of losing their access to universal healthcare and that’s a tragedy we can’t allow,” AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid has warned.

“We are unashamedly using the election campaign to ramp up the pressure and to understand which party is going to be the fabled ‘true friend’ of Medicare,” he said.

Members of the public are being asked to share their hospital horror stories in emergency departments, waits for essential surgery, or specialist appointments on a website.

These stories will be used to ram home to politicians how people are personally affected by the underfunding of public hospitals.

In coming weeks, ‘town hall’ events will be held in every state and territory allowing doctors and people to “share their experiences, problems, and performance of local public hospitals”.

The AMA is demanding the Commonwealth lift its share of public hospital funding from 45 to 50 per cent and that it removes a 6.5 per cent per year cap on increased funding.

Emergency physician Dr Sarah Whitelaw said patients were not having their pain managed because there were not enough staff to insert pain relief drips, there was no-one to restock plastic medicine cups or toilet paper, provide food for patients, clean dirty linen or restock the blankets.

“The overriding feeling is one of absolute exhaustion caused by the workforce shortage,” Dr Whitelaw said.

Dr Sarah Whitelaw says patients are not having their pain managed. Picture: Supplied

Hand and wrist surgeon Dr Neela Janakiramanan said she had a patient who nearly lost his house because carpal tunnel syndrome meant he couldn’t work and long surgery wait times meant he couldn’t get a simple 20 minute surgery allowing him back to work.

Bowel Cancer Australia’s Professor Graham Newstead said 75,000 people had missed out on a colonoscopy for bowel cancer last year when colonoscopy units were closed and that mean at least 400 cancers went undiscovered.

“There will be probably hundreds of extra bowel cancer cases occurring and some of them will be advanced and therefore potentially incurable,” he said.

Dr Neela Janakiramanan, a hand and wrist surgeon. Picture: Supplied

9688 LIVES LOST WAITING FOR CARE

Hundreds of beds have been stripped from Australia’s hospital system as the population ages, hospital emergency presentations soar and surgery wait times blow out to record breaking levels.

Waiting times for elective surgery were at the highest level on record in June last year, with nearly 900,000 people waiting for care.

Tragically 9688 patients died waiting or were not contactable, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data shows.

Half of all patients waited more than 48 days for surgery an increase of more than a week from 39 days in 2019-2020, while the number of patients waiting more than a year for surgery nearly tripled to 57,000.

Hospital bed numbers have plunged. Picture: istock

Despite an ageing population and higher levels of chronic disease, the number of hospital beds in Australia has plunged in some states between 2018-19 and 2019-20, the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services shows:

NSW had 502 fewer hospital beds than in 2018-19.

Victoria had 135 fewer hospital beds than in 2018-19.

South Australia had 49 fewer hospital beds than 2018-19.

Queensland had 292 more hospital beds than in 2018-19.

Western Australia had 247 fewer hospital beds than in 2018-19.

Northern Territory had the same number of hospital beds as 2018-19.

The ACT had 41 more hospital beds than 2018-19.

The AMA believes by 2030-31, there will be approximately 7,150 fewer beds than needed for the population.

Emergency departments are under siege. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

And when it comes spending on patients, Victorian hospitals spend the least of all states – averaging $2687 per person. South Australia spends $2730 and NSW $2887.

The Northern Territory ($6071) and Queensland ($3294) spend the most.

Emergency departments are under siege with 8.8 million visits in the year to June 2021, up by a staggering 600,000 and nearly one in three patients were not seen within clinically recommended times, AIHW data shows.

Ambulance services have also been overwhelmed, unable to attend to calls on time and forced to wait up to nine hours at overstretched hospitals emergency departments lacking available beds.

Originally published as AMA’s campaign to save underfunded public hospitals, patients at risk of dying