Revealed: Scathing regional health inquiry finds ‘culture of fear’ inside NSW Health

A damning report off the back of a year-long regional health inquiry has handed down 44 urgent recommendations to the state government.

The state government has been handed 44 urgent recommendations to fix “a historic failure” in improving the “inferior” and “unacceptable” regional healthcare sector.

The parliamentary inquiry into healthcare access in rural, regional, and remote NSW tabled its final report on Thursday morning and found that residents away from the cities were facing consistently poor health outcomes and premature death.

The scathing critique came out of the year-long inquiry which had 15 hearings that detailed horrific stories including hospitals that operate without doctors, paramedics being treated like a patient transport service and repeated neglect of patients.

Labor MLC Greg Donnelly said the evidence was unacceptable. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Chair Greg Donnelly said the current state of regional health “is a situation that can and should not be seen as acceptable”.

“We heard stories of emergency departments with no doctors; of patients being looked after by cooks and cleaners; of excessive wait times for treatment; and of misdiagnoses and medical errors,” he said.

“This evidence is by no means a reflection on the NSW Health staff working tirelessly in challenging circumstances; rather it is an indictment of the system that has allowed this situation to develop.

“Overall, the committee has found that residents of rural, regional and remote New South Wales have poorer health outcomes and inferior access to health and hospital services, and face significant financial challenges in accessing these services, compared to their metropolitan counterparts.”

Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor will speak on the findings on Monday afternoon. Picture: Christian Gilles

The committee found that NSW Health had “a culture of fear” to gag staff from raising concerns about resourcing, patient safety and staff welfare and that there was a lack of “transparency and accountability” across the department and its regional health districts.

The recommendations include developing a 10-year recruitment and retention plan for the regional health workforce, increasing training positions, expediting a review of the nurses and midwifery workforce and greater employer of geriatric nurses.

The report also called on the committee to hold a follow up inquiry in two years to ensure the recommendations are followed through.

Premier Dominic Perrottet said he isn’t surprised by the findings of the report.

Premier Dominic Perrottet and his government has six months to respond to the inquiry. Picture: Dylan Coker

“I’ll read it, that’d be the first step … I don’t think I’ll be surprised by what I read because these issues have been well ventilated during the course of the inquiry,” he said.

“The great thing about these inquiries is that they provide insight for governments to reflect on and look at and address and that‘s exactly what we’ll do.

“This is a difficulty that we have to address.”

The state government has until November to respond to the recommendations and Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor will speak on the findings in Queanbeyan on Thursday afternoon.