Political row widens over Nepean Hospital

Cancer patients are facing a six-week wait for treatment as the political slanging match over Nepean Hospital’s much-needed upgrade continues.

Isabell Petrinic

4 min read

August 31, 2016 - 5:58PM

Penrith Press

Labor held a rally to save Nepean Hospital.

Penrith

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PLAYING politics won’t fix the lack of beds at Nepean Hospital.

“We’re at capacity now — both in the emergency department (ED), and the Nepean Cancer Care Centre — and we’re needing some recognition and acknowledgment of that,” the chair of the Medical Staff Council at the hospital, Dr Nhi Nguyen, told the Penrith Press.

“We’re the most efficient hospital compared to our peers across the state, but we still have the longest waiting time for elective surgery (the median wait is 341 days), and we’re one of the worst performers for ED.

“More times than not we’re opening beds above our bed base number to accommodate patients, which is still safe, but at the end of the financial year we’ve gone over budget.”

Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman and Lindsay MP Emma Husar at a rally to save Nepean Hospital.

Her comments come as State Labor on Sunday yet again promised to fully fund the stage four $370 million upgrade to Nepean Hospital, but Penrith state Liberal MP on Monday claimed they were having a lend of the community.

“Were they deceitful during the election, or are they being deceitful now?” Mr Ayres said, pointing to Labor’s plan to redevelop Nepean Hospital, where it stated “final decisions on the project design will be made following the $4 million planning process”.

He asked how is that plan different to the Liberal Party’s.

“They continue to play politics when what they should be doing is getting on board our plan to redevelop this hospital to make sure this community gets what it deserves,” Mr Ayres said.

At a community rally near the hospital on Sunday, NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley said patients, doctors and nurses have been strung along for too long by this government.

“When patients suffering heart attacks can’t be admitted because the roof is crumbling it is clear that the situation is critical,” he said, adding “Western Sydney can’t wait any longer”.

.NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley addresses the rally.

Dr Nguyen agreed, time was of the essence.

“We understand that the health dollars are precious, but the planning process will take many years and the likelihood of us being able to move into a new hospital, or new building, is likely another five years away — if not more,” she lamented.

“The really unmet need for us locally is cancer treatment.

“We only have two radiation linear accelerators, and are needing to refer some patients to other radiation centres because of the excessive waiting time — it’s about six weeks.”

Nepean Hospital’s Stage 4 upgrade planning “has been going for 12 months,” Mr Ayres told the Penrith Press in mid-July.

“When we know how much the hospital will cost we will then announce what we’re doing with the hospital,” he reiterated on Monday.

Dr Nguyen, who is an intensive care specialist at the hospital, said while it’s true the Ministry of Health had begun spending the first $1 million of state planning dollars, “the concern that the Medical Staff Council has is around the time frame”.

In late June, she told the Mt Druitt-St Marys Standard that the hospital needed 80 new beds “immediately” and recurrent funding to staff them.

“If you don’t have beds you have to cancel elective surgery, which puts us back even further,” she told the Penrith Press on Tuesday.

“Currently, there is insufficient space to see patients who come for assessment in the ED, plus we don’t have enough ward beds to move patients to.

“When you have a median surgical waiting times of less than 150, like the eastern suburbs, they can afford to cancel a theatre list here and there to accommodate, say, the winter surge of patients — we can’t afford to do that.

“We’re stretched, in emergency as well as elective work.”

Mr Ayres said Labor’s ‘A Better Way’ infrastructure plan indicated in their first year, across the entire state, they would spend $116 million on infrastructure.

“In their second year $241 million, and in their third year $770 million,” Mr Ayres said.

“So they would have to allocate almost half of their entire infrastructure budget for the entire state on Nepean Hospital.

“This is, quite frankly, a bit of a fraud.

“Labor knew they were never going to build a hospital here in the first two years and now they come out in a confected rage and argue that we’re not spending enough money, when their own plan was to do their own planning work first.

“But, what’s worse, is they already allocated an amount of money that they probably don’t have because they’ve chosen to block, at every stage, the savings measures that we’ve put in as a government that allows us to reinvest in infrastructure.”

NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association general secretary, Brett Holmes said members were reporting “an incredible increase in demand” at Nepean Hospital due to the expansion of the population in the area.

“The current emergency department was designed to cope with the 2011 population, which has grown almost 10 per cent and is forecast to grow another 25 per cent in the next 15 years,” he reminded.

“We need to acknowledge that extra strain on our public health services by providing a hospital that can manage the flow of patients well into the future, without compromising patient safety.”

Health Services Union NSW secretary, Gerard Hayes said Labor’s promised upgrade was “an excellent step in the right direction”.

“We support it, but we will also continue to call on all parties to commit to appropriate staffing levels,” he said.

Dr Ngyen said: “Patients who come to Nepean get the best treatment they can get, like anywhere in Sydney, but it’s (because) of the goodwill of staff.”