Sydney hospital boss departs after cancer diagnosis delays revealed

The head of one of Sydney’s busiest health districts has departed after it emerged patients with cancer were waiting up to a year for essential procedures due to a massive backlog of cases.

Less than an hour before they were due to move a vote of no-confidence in Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) chief executive Graeme Loy, doctors at Westmead Hospital received an email from NSW Health secretary Susan Pearce informing them Loy would be leaving the position next week.

Doctors at Westmead Hospital were due to move a vote of no-confidence in Western Sydney Local Health District chief executive Graeme Loy before he stepped down. Credit: Monique Westermann

“Graeme has been a passionate advocate for western Sydney, committed to championing key reforms in digital health, integrated care, and workforce development,” Pearce wrote, crediting his role in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in western Sydney and operating the state’s largest vaccination hub at Qudos Bank Arena.

Former South Western Sydney LHD boss Amanda Larkin will act as interim chief executive until a replacement is found.

Loy was appointed to the role in 2018 and has overseen the development of the Westmead Health and Innovation Precinct, as well as early planning and design for a new hospital at Rouse Hill.

He had a brief stint as interim chief executive of Sydney LHD after Teresa Anderson left following a vote of no-confidence in her leadership by doctors at Concord Hospital.

Almost 200 senior doctors had gathered at Westmead on Thursday evening for an urgent special meeting to vote on a no-confidence motion in Loy, after this masthead revealed at least 21 patients had their cancer diagnoses delayed as the hospital’s waiting list for endoscopies surpassed more than 3300 people.

The vote proceeded despite Loy’s resignation, and was passed unanimously. All 192 doctors present voted to send a delegation to meet with NSW Health to discuss their next steps.

Medical Staff Council (MSC) deputy chair Jenny King said the meeting had brought a “sentiment of unity” among senior doctors, who were ready to work constructively with the health district.

“We will be working on prioritising the issues where patients suffer the most … and those of us [in other departments] will wait for other things,” she said. “That’s a big change because it’s been very much a divide and conquer.”

Notifying members of the meeting in a letter sent on Tuesday, King said the council had advocated for improvements to patient care, “including excessive delays in clinic review, procedures and surgical admissions”.

“This has been a particular concern for those patients with a positive faecal occult blood screen,” she wrote.

The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program recommends a patient with a positive result from the blood stool test should undergo a colonoscopy within 30 days.

No patient at Westmead has been diagnosed in that time frame, and many exceeded the 120-day maximum waiting time recommended by the Cancer Council, doctors told the hospital’s management in a letter last week.

In her letter, King said the failure had long been documented on the health district’s “risk list”, and the council had communicated their concerns to Loy. They had presented multiple proposals to manage the backlog, she said, “but these have not been acted upon”.

Doctors at Westmead had not passed a no-confidence vote in more than 15 years. It is the busiest hospital in NSW by admissions, delivering more than 26,000 care episodes in the first three months of the year.

Australian Medical Association NSW councillor and western Sydney surgeon Fred Betros said the events that led to the MSC action and, indirectly, Loy’s departure, reflected the pressure clinicians are under daily.

“Since the announcement today, I have been contacted by many AMA members across NSW who have said the same problems exist in their local health districts,” Betros said. “This is a statewide issue … [and] has uncorked a lot of professional frustrations and concerns to levels I have not seen in 20 years working as a senior clinician.”

The health district did not respond to questions about whether Loy had resigned or been removed, or whether it was a result of the impending vote, releasing a statement echoing the one sent to staff on Thursday evening.

In a statement, Health Minister Ryan Park thanked Loy for his contribution to health services in western Sydney.

Internal correspondence, reported by this masthead, showed doctors had been sharing their concerns with Loy and hospital management about endoscopy waitlists since at least 2019.

The health district has ordered an independent review to identify priority patients on the waitlist, a spokesperson said last week. They expected patients with extended delays would receive appointments “over the next three months”.

Any patients with concerns about endoscopy waitlists can call the health district’s dedicated hotline on 0439 148 391.

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