Northern Beaches Hospital: Waiting times increase for sickest patients
Northern Beaches Hospital saw an extra 17,400 people attend its Emergency Department in the last quarter, with waiting times increasing for the sickest patients
Manly
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Waiting times for the sickest patients attending Northern Beaches Hospital’s Emergency Department increased in the last quarter.
The latest health report shows waiting times were up for those needing emergency, urgent and semi-urgent care.
However, it still performed better on waiting time across all categories than the average for its peer group, with the exception of patients needing urgent care.
And, in the non-urgent category, waiting times improved, but that could be skewed by the high number of patients having COVID tests.
It comes as the Bureau of Health Information report reveals the hospital saw a whopping 34,000 patients arrive at its emergency department between October and December 2020, up 17,000 on the previous year.
The majority of those extra patients were seeking COVID tests.
Those getting COVID tests accounted for the 2000 per cent increase in patients in the non-urgent category during that period.
There was also a jump in patients needing resuscitation, with the hospital seeing an increase of 39 per cent.
The number of patients needing emergency care also rose by seven per cent, compared to the same quarter in 2019.
The report also revealed that the hospital scored particularly well in three categories, elective surgery, ambulance transfers and the amount of time patients spent in ED, topping the state for its performance in those areas.
It completed 100 per cent of elective surgeries on time, saw 99 per cent of patients arriving by ambulance transferred into emergency care within 30 minutes and 84.5 per cent of people who arrived in ED spent four hours or less there.
Andrew Newton, CEO at Northern Beaches Hospital, said the hospital performed well despite additional numbers due to a pandemic.
“We continued to deliver excellent, timely care to the local community even during the particularly busy December Northern Beaches COVID-19 cluster,” Mr Newton said.
“Our emergency department conducted 8284 COVID-19 tests during December at the height of the cluster and we also cared for many seriously ill patients during this time.
“The number of triage category 1 resuscitation cases grew by 39.6 per cent (or 38 patients), and triage category 2 emergency patient numbers also increased by 7.5 per cent (or 247 patients) to 3555.
“Despite the higher number of patients, 86.7 per cent of people started their treatment within the specified time frame, compared with 79.5 per cent for the same quarter in 2019.
“It is a great testament to our teams that we can respond to a local pandemic incident while still maintaining efficient care.
EARLIER:
Midwives forced to look after surgical patients
On December 1, 2020
Northern Beaches Hospital is so busy that general surgical patients are being looked after by midwives in what was once exclusively the maternity department, as it was revealed some staff may not be qualified.
It comes as the public-private Frenchs Forest hospital, run by private operator Healthscope, has been ramping up elective surgery post-COVID.
However, union representatives and a source close to hospital staff, said there were fears for patients’ safety, as some midwives do not have dual nursing qualifications, and those who do may not have nursed general patients for a long time.
There are also concerns about the high patient-to-staff ratio.
“Midwives are employed to look after the continuum of pregnancy, labour and the post-natal period,” said the source.
“Many would not have nursed ‘generals’ for years.
“How would patients feel if they knew they weren’t getting optimum surgical nursing care?”
The source added that staff were slammed following an increase in operations at the hospital.
In a statement Northern Beaches Hospital said it had opened Ward 2A in September 2020 as a women’s health ward. Ward 2A was previously referred to as the private maternity ward.
Ward 2A takes only private patients, including maternity and now other general female patients too.
“The ward cares for both maternity and other female surgical patients under the care of doctors, general nursing staff and midwives,” the Healthscope statement said.
“Before they are placed on a ward, patients are assessed to meet an agreed criteria.
“More than 50 per cent of staff on Ward 2A are dual trained having completed general nursing and midwifery training.
“Midwives, as part of their role, care for women who have had undergone various surgical procedures including caesarean sections.
“Midwives are trained to deal with a range of clinical scenarios including post-operative care and wound management. General surgical nurses also work on the ward and support midwives where necessary.”
Fiona Deegan from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, said the union was aware
that general medical patients are often being cared for in the maternity department at Northern Beaches Hospital.
“This raises ongoing concerns around not only staffing ratios, but also skills mix, given not all midwives have dual registration and experience,” she said.
“We’ve heard of instances when night shift can result in just two midwives caring for up to 15 patients, and some of those being medical patients as well as mothers and babies.
“In light of this, we again call on Healthscope and Northern Sydney Local Health District to seriously look at the staffing numbers in maternity services at Northern Beaches Hospital to ensure the local community is receiving the safest patient care possible.”
Last week, it was revealed up to 70 nurses and midwives were turning up to union meetings complaining about poor working conditions which were leaving them so tired they couldn’t properly look after patients.
They are also concerned about negotiations over a new enterprise agreement with fears growing that Healthscope was not meeting its commitment to offer the same level of care as any equivalent public hospital in NSW
Under the public-private arrangement, contractor Healthscope built the $600 million hospital and operates it for the State Government. It is paid by the government to provide public patient services for at least 20 years.
But the union said last week that Healthscope had “broken its public health promise” to the local community.
Healthscope rejected the claim, saying it would never compromise “the high quality of care and will always ensure adequate staffing levels are maintained”.
In February an Upper House parliamentary inquiry found that, primarily, Healthscope had a “responsibility to maximise returns to its shareholders”.
In September CEO Andrew Newton told the Manly Daily his “message to the people of the northern beaches is to remind them Northern Beaches Hospital is open for business.”
“Please come,” he said. “Check out our services and use us as your place of choice when you
need to have surgery or some other treatment.”
Healthscope said in a statement that NBH has continued to increase its public and private surgeries as community confidence in the hospital increases.
“Northern Beaches continues to achieve excellent results in all categories measured by the Bureau of Health Information including elective surgery,” it said.
The hospital continues to effectively manage surgery waiting lists with 577 surgeries performed in October 2020 – 100 per cent on time – that is within the time frame clinically indicated by the referring doctor.
In the October to December 2019 quarter, the hospital performed 707 surgeries – 99.9 per cent on time.
The union claims working conditions were badly affecting the nurses and midwives who transferred to Frenchs Forest from the publicly-run former Manly and Mona Vale hospitals.
“Healthscope is refusing a 10-hour break between shifts for nurses and midwives, which aims to keep patients safe by reducing fatigue among the staff,” Mr Holmes said on the issue last week.
“Our members have also told us they’re constantly missing breaks within their shifts now that elective surgery is returning to pre-COVID-19 levels.
“Healthscope will also strip back (under the new enterprise agreement) a host of other working conditions, including maternity and carers leave.”
In a statement last week Healthscope said the hospital delivered excellent health care to residents and performed well in the latest care data from the Bureau of Health Information.
Healthscope said it was continuing to discuss the conditions to be included in the next EBA “with a view to achieving fair and common working conditions across its NSW hospitals”.
“We are committed to reaching an agreement that is fair and reasonable and that values the work that nurses and midwives do every day,” it said.
“Under the proposed agreement, nursing staff from the former Mona Vale and Manly Public Hospitals, would join the new Healthscope NSW agreement which will align them with the higher Healthscope rates of pay.”
Healthscope is offering a two per cent pay increase over two years, backdated to October.
“This will mean Healthscope nurses and midwives will enjoy the highest rates of pay in all classifications when compared with the public sector.”
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