Patients reveal what it is like inside the new $600m Northern Beaches Hospital

The Northern Beaches Hospital has been described as ‘cruel and inhumane’ as patients complain of going hungry, nurses not responding to alarms and more. The latest criticism is detailed by three people receiving treatment at the new facility following a diabolical week for the hospital’s operator.

Eddie Rivers, 78, of Dee Why, at Northern Beaches Hospital. Picture: Supplied.

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A PATIENT who was undergoing a blood transfusion says he had to call the main Northern Beaches Hospital switchboard number for help after the machine’s alarm went off and nobody came to help.

Eddie Rivers, 78, who had a bleeding stomach ulcer, said he did not want to criticise the staff as they were “rushed off their feet” but wanted to highlight the understaffing problem and the fact that nurses could not see their patients.

The Dee Why man said while having a blood transfusion in the public ward on November 6 the machine’s alarm went off. After five minutes, he pressed a button to alert a nurse. Still nobody came.

After about 10 or 11 minutes, Mr Rivers decided he should call the main switchboard for help.

“I Googled the number for Healthscope and got through to the desk and I asked them to call the nurse on my ward to come and see me,” Mr Rivers said.

Eddie Rivers taken at his home in Dee Why. Eddie is a former patient at Northern Beaches Hospital. Picture: Julian Andrews.

A nurse then attended, who reset the machine. Although no harm had been done, Mr Rivers was not to know at the time. “I had no idea what was happening,” he said. “I was feeling pretty anxious, which is why I called the main hospital number.”

He said in addition to a nurse’s alarm there was an emergency button but he would have had to get out of bed to reach it, which he did not feel comfortable with while attached to two cannulas.

He also said he did not get an iron infusion that he had needed for two days because there were no supplies available.

“All the staff were so stressed,” Mr Rivers said.

“They were finding it difficult to cope.

“I think, if it continues, the staff they have got will be so demoralised they will want to quit.”

Healthscope did not reply to requests for comment.

The family of Evelyn Humphrey, of Narrabeen, were left distressed after they were unable to speak to her while she was in Northern Beaches Hospital because there are no phones in patient rooms. Here she is pictured with her grandchildren. Picture: Supplied.

WHEN Evelyn Humphrey, 87, was rushed to hospital after a fall her family was worried about her.

However, despite being a new, state-of-the-art hospital, there is no access to landline phones for patients.

Mrs Humphrey’s daughter, Bronwyn, 52, who lives in the US, said her mother did not have a mobile phone and therefore was unable to call her.

“It is cruel and inhumane and so upsetting to not be able to call and speak to my mum,” Ms Humphrey said.

“My girls (her granddaughters) were so upset they couldn’t call and speak to their grandmother.

“I would never want any other family to not be able to call their loved ones, let alone an elderly family member.

“This is also why I am speaking out, so that this can be addressed for those patients still to come and their family.

“I would want any hospital admin person to put themselves in my shoes and think how upsetting it would be not to be able to call their elderly mother until she is released, if that ends up being the happiest outcome. Imagine if it wasn’t.”

Exterior of Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest. Picture: Julie Cross.

Ms Humphrey said she had filled out a form on the hospital website complaining about the problem but had not received a response.

She said she also talked to the nurses’ station but they were not able to pass on any information.

Ms Humphrey said staff thought it was wrong that relatives could not phone patients.

While there was a landline phone on each ward, patients were told they could only use it if was an emergency.

“I tweeted a number of officials who proudly tweeted about the ‘state-of-the-art hospital’,” she said.

Ms Humphrey, who grew up in Forestville and then moved to Dee Why, left for the US when she was 23.

She said her mother lived at the War Vets in Narrabeen and was due to be released in the next couple of days when a rehab bed was made available.

A nurse at Northern Beaches Hospital, who did not want to be named, said there were many elderly patients without mobile phones.

She said most people aged over 80 did not have one and that staff felt upset for patients who could not call loved ones.

Entrance sign to Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest. Picture: Julie Cross.

A 98-YEAR-old Dee Why woman says she will never go back to Northern Beaches Hospital after a four-day stay where she missed out on dinner because it had run out — and there was a shortage of drinking water.

Her granddaughter, Simone Roberts, 36, of St Peters, told the Manly Daily this week that her grandmother was admitted because of a knee issue.

Ms Roberts, who did not want to name her grandmother, said on one day she did not receive any dinner because the hospital had run out of food.

“They gave her jelly and ice cream,” said Ms Roberts, a NewsLocal editor.

“It was shocking. My mum had to go out and buy a sandwich for her.”

As well as a lack of food, there was a lack of access to drinking water.

“My grandmother needed water but they could only provide her with a small plastic cup because they had run out of water jugs,” Ms Roberts said.

She said visitors were having to go out and buy bottles of water for patients.

However, a more serious matter was that when her grandmother was admitted she was Nil By Mouth.

After 24 hours of no food or water, a relative asked whether she should be on a drip.

The exterior at the new Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest. Picture: Julie Cross.

“The nurse looked really shocked that she had not been given a drip and immediately arranged one,” Ms Roberts said.

“Hydration is of utmost importance with an elderly person, especially one who is 98 and very frail. It can be fatal.”

Another concern was that none of her grandmother’s medical records had been transferred from Mona Vale Hospital.

Luckily, she had a relative to advocate for her, but Ms Roberts said she was concerned for other elderly patients who may not have a family member who could provide that information.

Her grandmother was discharged but on Thursday night she cut herself and was bleeding profusely. She refused to call an ambulance because she knew they would take her to Northern Beaches Hospital, Ms Roberts said.

“She was scared of going back, so my mum had to drive down from the Central Coast at midnight and drive her to Mona Vale Hospital,” she said.

“My concern is that if Mona Vale is not an option next time then she will deny herself the care because she has had such a bad experience.”