Northern Beaches Hospital inquiry: Patient death and inaccurate cancer diagnoses claims
Damning claims in public submissions to an inquiry into Northern Beaches Hospital tell a disturbing story of alleged medical errors, poor quality care and staff shortages.
A patient may have died unnecessarily, while others have been given inaccurate cancer diagnoses and children are having to wait up to seven months to see a specialist, according to public submissions to the Northern Beaches Hospital inquiry.
The fresh submissions tell a disturbing story of alleged medical errors, poor quality care and staff shortages.
Those who have submitted their views include staff from the under fire $600 million privately-run hospital, members of the public and organisations.
There has been a swath of negative publicity around the new public-private Frenchs Forest hospital since its opening in October when there was a lack of basic medical supplies including bandages, paracetamol and even body bags, as well as staff shortages.
Earlier this year a man with cancer had the wrong part of his bowel removed in a botched operation.
The inquiry, which will be looking into the operation and management of the hospital later this month, now has 225 submissions to work through with the most damning claims from the latest batch including:
*A man who attempted suicide, was taken to the hospital’s ED, later discharged and took his life 24 hours later
*The partner of a suicidal man who waited 16 hours to be admitted to the mental health ward — and then wasn’t seen by a psychologist until three days later
*An ED doctor who claims private patients are getting better treatment than public patients when it comes to time critical, life-threatening heart conditions
*A GP who says he had a patient who was incorrectly informed she had cancer that had spread to her liver and other “worrying levels of inaccuracy in their radiology reports leading to adverse outcomes”
*Children waiting up to seven months to see a specialist
*Concerns over the loss of public services including neurology and cardiology, previously available at Manly and Mona Vale hospitals
*Chronic understaffing with some departments having up to 80 per cent casual staff
*GPs recommending people go to Royal North Shore Hospital if they are unwell
*Incidents of patients experiencing “bill shock” when they get an invoice for treatment they thought was public
Healthscope, the private operator of Northern Beaches Hospital, also put in a submission, saying that the early weeks of NBH, have defined initial perceptions of the hospital.
But the past six months have “demonstrated the resilience, pride and determination of our team to deliver high quality care for the local community”.
The submission said: “As a result, our patients are benefiting from access to a range of new and expanded services, and a high standard of healthcare that will continue for decades to come.
“The real acknowledgment goes to our unsung, hardworking heroes at NBH who step up every day to provide a level of excellence in providing high quality care for our patients.”
It also went on to say the hospital was providing an excellent standard of care verified through government and other independent industry performance data.
However, some of the other submissions paint a different story.
The partner of a suicidal man who waited 16 hours to be admitted to the mental health ward wrote: “For the next two days I visited as much as possible while juggling two kids and living in Avalon and each visit he explained that no one had come to see him.
“He was seen by the psychologist on day three and asked if he felt he was OK to go home as they were coming up to a four day long weekend and no one would be able to check on him anyway.
“He was discharged with phone follow up one week later.
“Needless to say the pressure this put on our family was tremendous. I felt abandoned and completely at a loss of where to turn for help.”
In another submission by Community Care Northern Beaches, which supports people who have attempted suicide, said a man who attempted to take his life was admitted to the hospital and later discharged without them knowing. He took his life 24 hours later.
In the submission, Dr Gary Jacobson, CEO of CCNB, said referral pathways and in-hospital discharge planning was lacking.
“This means that patients do not get referred and linked into community care to avoid future hospital admissions, or at worse, early death,” he wrote.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Meanwhile, A GP from Dee Why, who asked for their name not to be made public, said he had multiple patients who had experienced “poor quality care” at the hospital in particular “poor quality radiology and pathology services at NBH”.
“I have had several patient episodes where patients have received inaccurate results of CT and ultrasound scans, including a patient who was informed that she had cancer which had spread to her liver. However subsequent investigations revealed an inaccurate diagnosis.
“While this can happen on occasion, as no investigation is perfect, I have seen several patients over a short period of time with worrying levels of inaccuracy in their radiology reports, potentially leading to adverse outcomes.
“I know several of my colleagues have also reported similar experiences.”
The GP added that the “situation has now been reached by myself and several of my colleagues where we advise patients to go to Royal North Shore Hospital if they are unwell, as I have no confidence in the level of care provided at NBH”.
An ED doctor, formally at Mona Vale Hospital whose name remains anonymous, claims in a submission that there was a “distinction in the ranges of services available to public patients presenting to NBH ED compared with private patients”.
“What is deemed to be a ‘public’ emergency department, does not always function as such,” the doctor wrote.
“The strongest example of such is in the provision of cardiac services.
“A patient presenting with a time critical ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), where all guidelines support minimal delay to treatment in a cardiac interventional suite are transferred to RNSH, at the cost of the taxpayers, and with a 20 to 30 minute delay to treatment, when compared with their private counterparts, who are able to receive this potentially lifesaving treatment at NBH.
“It seems grossly inefficient, an unnecessary use of tax payer dollars and not in the interest of patient care to transfer public patients to another facility when the care required is available at NBH.”
The inquiry’s first hearing will be on August 26, headed by Greg Donnelly.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the doctors and nurses and allied health staff were doing a fantastic job and he wasn’t going to “indulge in the Labor political campaign which seeks to undermine and not build up hospital staff who are there to look after us all”.
“If individual issues were how we judged every hospital in the state then all our amazing staff in the public health system would not feel supported in doing their job,” he said.
A submission to the inquiry from NSW Health said that Healthscope was required to deliver services to public patients at the standard expected of all NSW public hospitals and that NSW Health monitors Healthscope’s performance.
It added there was a mechanism within the payment framework for the reduction in payments made to Healthscope as a result of service delivery that falls below the levels provided in the service specifications and KPIs.
There was also the ability to terminate its partnership “for continued and/or excessive unsatisfactory performance”.
“Monthly data available to date indicates that fewer residents of the northern beaches community are attending Royal North Shore Hospital for emergency and admitted care since the opening of NBH,” the submission states.
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