Cardiac crisis: Warring children’s hospitals called to critical meeting

Warring factions from the state’s two children’s hospitals will be expected to work together tomorrow at a critical meeting aimed at ending a bitter feud over cardiac services.

Warring factions from the state’s two children’s hospitals will be expected to work together on Saturday at a critical meeting aimed at ending a bitter feud over cardiac services.

However top doctors from Sydney Children’s Hospital are “absolutely livid” a roundtable tasked with solving the turf war between facilities at Randwick and Westmead has allocated 35 minutes for them to plead their case.

“It’s a whitewash, it is going to be terrible,” one senior doctor said.

“We’ll all be walking out tomorrow knowing none of the issues will be addressed.”

Doctors from Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick and The Children’s Hospital Westmead will be seated next to each other during a six hour-long roundtable discussion exploring the best model of care for paediatric cardiac surgery.

Medical staff at Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick held a rally in support of saving cardiac services. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

And some Randwick doctors say the prognosis is not good because they fear the meeting has been “stacked” with representatives who have Westmead’s best interests at heart.

They want to leave the network that governs both facilities amid claims that those at Westmead have deliberately siphoned cardiac services from their campus, putting the lives of children at risk.

Top medicos had been billing tomorrow’s critical six-hour meeting as pivotal to solving the feud between east and west over the allocation of cardiac services, with doctors on the Randwick side of the stoush claiming transporting patients 43km further away to Westmead would eventually lead to deadly consequences.

A copy of the agenda for tomorrow’s showdown obtained reveals doctors will be able to make a presentation and hold a Q&A on the review of governance and cardiac services between 10.05am and 10.40am.

A NSW Health spokesman said the conference would canvass a range of topics and that the cardiac services issue dividing doctors at the state’s two children’s hospitals would be discussed beyond the 35 minutes allocated.

“We are disappointed it is being lost among all these state-wide issues,” one doctor said.

In a letter sent to Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Randwick medical staff council chair Dr Susan Russell said it was “staggering” the hospital’s only paediatric cardiac surgeon Dr Peter Grant “did not receive a direct invitation” to the roundtable.

She also said the head of Randwick’s cardiac intensive care unit Dr Andrew Numa was similarly “ignored”.

“We remain deeply suspicious that this will be another exercise in predetermination, with anyone with views contrary to the Network or Ministry (of Health) sidelined,” Dr Russell said.

The letter, sent on Thursday, was signed by 120 senior specialists at Randwick.

Westmead doctors say cardiac surgery should be concentrated at one site to achieve the best results but are open to suggestions about the location.

Sydney Children’s Hospital Network head of cardiology Dr Phil Roberts said while Randwick needs improved cardiology services to help diagnose patients with heart problems, an on-site cardiac surgeon is not required in most cases.

More than 400 people turned out to a recent rally. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

“Say a child had a car accident for instance, a cardiothoracic trauma. How often do they need a cardiac surgeon? The answer is probably once every five years,” he said.

“Are you going to maintain a cardiac surgeon or surgical service for an event that happens that infrequently?”

He also said it was “completely untrue” that some Randwick doctors had deliberately not been invited to the roundtable, adding that Dr Grant will be one of the speakers.

The roundtable, ordered by Mr Hazzard, will be attended by about 140 medical, nursing and allied health staff from the two campuses and other paediatric staff from around NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

Mr Hazzard said it was an “honest opportunity” for doctors to state their case, which will help the Ministry of Health decide whether heart surgery should be maintained on both sites.

“Each and every person in that room will have the interests of our tiniest patients at heart but there also has to be a call made as to that best model (of care) after all those views are heard,” he said.

It’s understood one issue that will be looked at is why paediatric cardiologists are referring the majority of patients to Westmead.

An independent moderator will run the roundtable and report back to the Ministry of Health with the views of health staff.

Paediatric orthopaedic surgeons Angus Gray and Michael Solomon are concerned about Randwick’s representation at the meeting after “years of biased committees strongly weighted towards Westmead”.

“We as a senior medical staff council have been given five places out of 150,” Dr Gray said.