Westmead hospital performs double amount of surgeries than Randwick colleagues

After more than 6000 people signed a petition claiming Sydney Children’s Hospital Westmead was being favoured over Randwick for cardiac services, figures released last week reveal one facility performed double the surgeries of the other.

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Westmead paediatric surgeons performed almost double the amount of elective surgeries than their Randwick counterparts between January and March this year, with 1255 patients going under the knife.

In total 384 of those were considered ‘urgent’ in comparison to 119 of the same severity performed at Randwick.

Randwick doctors have been in open revolt against the State Government since early this year over claims sending more patients from the eastern suburbs to Westmead, which is 34 kilometres further away, could lead to deadly consequences.

Bureau of Health Information figures reveal that the Randwick paediatric specialists performed 113 less surgeries across all categories of seriousness from January to March this year, in comparison with 2018.

Last week the Department of Health denied patients lives were at risk due to the feud. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“Both our hospitals at Randwick and Westmead saw significant increases in ED presentations at the start of 2019 which impacted on the number of elective surgeries that were performed at both sites,” a Sydney Children’s Hospital spokeswoman said.

“The children’s hospital at Westmead is a larger facility than Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, so sees a higher proportion of patients. This has always been the case, with similar proportional differences over the past 10 years.”

Advocates last week ramped up their fight to restore cardiac services at the hospital, with 6707 people signing a petition to save the service at the time of print.

Head of paediatric ICU at Randwick Dr John Awad is one of a number of senior staff to have signed the petition.

Key to their concerns were claims that cardiac procedures had ground to a halt since the hospitals merged.

The statistics show those children in the most severe cases waited a day longer this year before going into surgery than during the same period 12 months ago at Randwick.

Emeritus consultant paediatric Orthopaedic surgeon Dr John Stephen (left) and paediatric ICU specialist and anaesthetist Dr John Awad are two of the most senior medicos at Randwick who have gone public with their concerns since the start of the year.

“Any suggestion that patient safety is being compromised or that Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick is at any risk is simply not true,” a Department of Health spokeswoman last week told the Wentworth Courier.

The same doctors last month voted to leave the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, which runs both facilities, ramping up the pressure on Health Minister Brad Hazzard to find a solution to the ongoing stand-off.

Mr Hazzard is due to release findings of a report into the governance of the SCHN this month, though it is understood the report did not cover the issue of cardiac services.

The BHI figures also show that less patients in the highest risk category are being treated on time at Randwick’s emergency department.

Between January and March this year 65.4 per cent of T2 emergency patients, those suffering the most severe and often life-threatening injuries, started treatment on time.

While that figure is better than similar hospitals, where 58.1 per cent of patients are treated on time, it represents a 7 per cent decrease in patients receiving timely medical attention from the same period in 2018.

The Sydney Children’s Hospital has been contacted for comment.