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Doctors at work

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A leaked patient list from Westmead Hospital Emergency Department

Ninety hours in emergency: Leaked patient list reveals dire effects of psychiatrist crisis

Severely ill and distressed patients are waiting three and a half days in emergency for mental health beds that don’t exist in a shocking escalation of the state’s psychiatrist workforce crisis.

  • Kate Aubusson and Angus Thomson

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Foreign doctors are being sold the dream of living near the Sydney Opera House or at Byron Bay as the state government desperately tries to fill hospital psychiatrist roles. 

‘Opera House on your doorstep’: Pitch for foreign doctors to plug NSW Health holes

NSW Health is offering “crisis” rates up to $3050 a day to doctors after more than half the state’s public hospital psychiatrists resigned.

  • Angus Thomson and Kate Aubusson
Nepean Hospital has a backlog of 17,000 scans. 

Patients wait months for scan results at ‘toxic’ Sydney hospital

A backlog of more than 17,000 MRIs and other scans at Nepean Hospital is putting patients at risk of delayed diagnoses, the hospital’s staff have warned.

  • Angus Thomson and Kate Aubusson
If the impasse cannot be resolved by Monday, Gosford Hospital’s obstetrics and gynaecology services risk going on bypass.

Hospital stripped of trainee doctors over staff, patient welfare concerns

The Central Coast’s only public obstetric and gynaecology service is about to be severely depleted with the temporary loss of accredited trainee doctors.

  • Kate Aubusson
Bureau of Health Information data July - September 2024

Revealed: How our hospitals fail half their seriously ill patients

Fewer people are visiting NSW emergency departments with non-urgent conditions, but emergency staff are overwhelmed with a record number of seriously ill patients.

  • Angus Thomson
Anaesthetists have hit out at their medical college over its treatment of former safety and quality committee chair.

Doctors revolt against medical college that sacked chair for speaking out

Dozens of members have complained to the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists about its treatment of a former chair spoke to this masthead about billing issues.

  • Henrietta Cook and Melissa Cunningham
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Dr Pramudie Gunaratne, Chair of the NSW Branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

These NSW doctors warned of a fractured system and now half have quit

Half the state’s public psychiatrists have resigned as the Bondi Junction attack inquest shines a spotlight on chronically understaffed mental health units.

  • Kate Aubusson
Thousands of Australians who have had surgery in private hospitals are being urged to check their medical invoices and specialist doctors’ bills for ‘red flags’ indicating they may have been charged fees outside their health funds or Medicare.

‘Red flags’: How to check if you’ve been a victim of a medical bill ‘double dip’

Australians who have had surgery in private hospitals are being urged to check their bills after a whistleblower alleged dozens of doctors have been engaging in systematic fraud and double-dipping.

  • Melissa Cunningham and Henrietta Cook
Psychiatrists in the NSW public mental health system are threatening to resign amid an ongoing pay dispute with the state government.

Doctors threaten mass resignation amid worsening crisis

Psychiatrists have warned that chronic understaffing of the public mental health system is risking patient safety as they fight for a 30 per cent pay rise.

  • Kate Aubusson and Angus Thomson
Premier Steven Miles and David Crisafulli clashed over the ‘patients tax’ claims during their debate last week.

Labor joins LNP in vowing no GP ‘patients tax’

Doctors’ groups have welcomed a bipartisan Qld election pledge to exempt GPs from payroll tax to keep patients’ costs down.

  • William Davis, Matt Dennien and Cameron Atfield

Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/topic/doctors-at-work-1n5o