Bush Summit 2022: Yass Hospital staff pen open letter to Premier over chronic worker shortage
Hospital staff shortages in the bush are reaching crisis point. Now Yass’ doctors and nurses are speaking out, because “the community really needs to know how bad things are”.
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Patients needing emergency care in a regional NSW hospital are “taking their lives in their own hands”, as staff shortages across the bush reach crisis point.
The chronic lack of staff at Yass District Hospital has led to 25 workers signing an open letter, seen by The Daily Telegraph, which states “the worsening staffing crisis … is placing the general community at great risk of harm”.
The letter, directed to Premier Dominic Perrottet and Health Minister Brad Hazzard, states “the current staffing crisis at Yass Hospital means that there have been periods of time where no appropriately trained clinical staff are present at the hospital to provide any form of emergency service”.
The crisis prompted NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Yass Hospital branch president Paul Haines to describe the rural healthcare system as “a lottery”.
“If you present to the emergency department (there) over the last six months, you’re basically taking your life in your own hands, which is just a travesty in a country like Australia,” he said.
“This is not unique to Yass Hospital – this is happening all over rural NSW.”
Overnight on July 6, according to the letter, no doctor and only one nurse was on for the 12-bed facility, including the emergency department.
“This nurse did not have the necessary training or experience to provide safe or effective clinical care in the emergency department,” the letter states.
Again on July 8 between 4.30pm and 5.30pm there was a period “where there was no nurse working in the Emergency Department and no doctor on site,” staff claim.
“Patients presenting to emergency were advised to wait in the Emergency Department waiting room,” the letter states.
When an appropriately qualified nurse was found to triage the patients, one was assessed as a “category two” – meaning they required urgent lifesaving medical attention which guidelines state should be delivered within 10 minutes of the patient presenting.
Staff at the hospital wrote a similar letter at Christmas claiming a paramedic from Sydney was left to run the hospital when there were no doctors to man it.
Mr Haines said it had been a reoccurring problem at the bush hospital, where the next nearest ED was 50 minutes away in the ACT.
“We’ve had a couple of episodes we’re we’ve been really short staffed or not staffed appropriately at all,” he said.
“At a national level we have no nurses – the conditions in nursing are so bad that people aren’t coming in or they aren’t staying in.
“The community really needs to know how bad things are. It’s the same all over NSW Health at the moment.
“I’ve never worked in a health service as bad as this.”
A spokeswoman for the Southern NSW Local Health District said: “Yass District Hospital continues to provide safe and effective care. Appropriately trained staff are on site 24 hours per day, seven days per week to care for inpatients and provide emergency care.”
The spokeswoman confirmed a senior nurse manager was on duty on July 6 to replace a staff member who took unplanned leave.
She said on July 8, three clinicians, a doctor and two registered nurses provided cover for 30 minutes between shifts, contrary to the union’s claims there was no nurse in the Emergency Department or doctor on site.
The spokeswoman said the district was actively recruiting for more than three full-time registered nurse roles, and another enrolled nurse.
Labor health spokesman Ryan Park said it was “clear” there was a health crisis in the bush.
“Whether it’s hospitals without doctors, EDs without nurses or patients being forced to travel hours for access to basic healthcare, it is quite clear that there is a crisis in rural and regional hospitals right across NSW,” he said.
Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor said “there’s obviously massive challenges about the health force” but “Yass Hospital does continue to provide safe and suitable care”.
She said the hospital was suitably covered at all times, including on July 8 when she said a third year and eighth year nurse were available.
“What concerns me about these sorts of things is it discourages people going to hospital when they need to,” she said.
New initiatives, like an $883 million scheme which offers health workers recruitment and retention incentive packages worth up to $10,000 a year to take up a position in a rural or remote location, will help improve worker numbers in the bush, she said.
“We know there’s definitely a great pipeline of nurses coming through … Will it remain a challenge for the next few years? Absolutely it will.
“That’s why we have a Minister for Regional Health … but it’s not going to happen overnight, if it’s an easy fix we would have done it.”
The Daily Telegraph’s 2022 Bush Summit will be streamed online live and free on Friday August 26. Register to watch here: https://bushsummit2022-dailytelegraph.splashthat.com/
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