‘You’re a waste of space’: Widow slams health minister Jillian Skinner

THE woman whose husband died after lying undiscovered for 20 hours in a hospital toilet says NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner should resign.

There have been calls for NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner to resign in the wake of the death of a baby at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital. Picture: AAP/Dan Himbrechts

THE woman whose husband died after he spent 21 hours undiscovered in a hospital toilet after suffering a stroke has labelled NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner as a “waste of space”.

Her comments follow the latest hospital tragedy which left one newborn baby dead and another with severe disabilities.

As Mrs Skinner faces fresh calls to resign, an incensed Lexie Bugden told 2UE today the Health Minister had never contacted her, nor apologised for her husband’s death.

After hearing John Stanley and Garry Linnell speak to Mrs Skinner about her response to the death of a newborn baby after a gas mix-up at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, Mrs Bugden phoned 2UE and let rip.

“She’s a waste of space. She really is,” Mrs Bugden said.

“I reckon that minister’s an absolute liar ... they promised us it could never happen again.”

Lexie Bugden has unloaded on Health Minister Jillian Skinner. Picture: Channel 9

Alan Bugden, 66, died in August last year, a week after suffering a stroke in a toilet at Royal

North Shore Hospital, where he had gone to fulfil an outpatient appointment.

Mrs Bugden and her family spent the bulk of the next week with him at the hospital’s stroke unit before he died.

He lay unconscious for 21 hours in the locked cubicle before being discovered by a cleaner, after being listed as a “no show” for his outpatient appointment.

After his death, Mrs Bugden said she received an apology from the hospital, but said her numerous attempts to contact Mrs Skinner fell on deaf ears.

She said she rang Mrs Skinner’s office “constantly”, and wrote her an email, but “never, ever, ever” did she receive a reply.

“I tried to give her my idea of what should happen in those toilets. And she never picked up the phone,” Mrs Bugden said.

Alan Bugden died a week after lying for 21 hours undiscovered in a hospital toilet cubicle. Picture: Channel 9

“I wrote her an email saying ‘as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, pick up the phone’.

“And I went to one of those meetings and they promised us it could never happen again.

“And then a month ago a lady died in a locked toilet at John Hunter (Hospital in Newcastle).

“These people said that the procedures they put in (after Alan’s death) went right through every public hospital. And eight months later another lady dies in a toilet. You must have to look at it and think ‘well there’s something wrong in our system’. There must be.”

Referring to the latest tragedy in which baby John Ghanem died less than an hour after being born after being given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, and left another baby fighting for his life, Mrs Bugden’s voice broke as she continued.

“And for two babies. Two babies ... you know ... they’re not even looking. They’re not even looking. How many deaths and how many upset people are out there?”

Mrs Bugden said hospital “is supposed to be where you’re safe ... it’s not safe anymore”, and said the problem was not the staff, but a lack of funding and the system.

“The doctors and nurses do a great job. What is letting them down is the funding to fix that hospital,” she said.

“There is something wrong with the minister’s job, not with the hospital.”