Babies’ lives at risk, specialists warn

The lives of critically ill children, including newborn babies, across NSW are being put at risk, paediatric surgeons say.

Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick.

The lives of critically ill children, including newborn babies, across NSW are being put at risk due to a systematic reduction in cardiac services at Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick, in the city’s east, paediatric specialists say.

Almost 100 physicians and surgeons who work at the hospital took the extraordinary step on Friday night of writing to NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard calling for “urgent intervention” and warning of “serious concerns about ­future patient safety because of the ­reduction and proposed cessation of onsite cardiac surgery”.

They said a “full-time presence of paediatric cardiac surgeons” was essential for the hospital and “preventable deaths” would occur if cardiac surgery ceased.

The doctors have decided to speak out publicly by agreeing at a meeting last night to send an open letter to the Minister. They say their safety concerns have been raised repeatedly since 2012, including with the secretary of NSW Health, but until now, “the issue remains unresolved”.

The concerns come amid a long-running turf war over whether cardiac services should be concentrated at the Children’s Hos­pital at Westmead, in the city’s west, or conducted at both sites.

Read the letter to Brad Hazzard here

A spokeswoman for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network last night said there was a commitment to retaining cardiac services at both sites.

However, the Randwick specialists say in their letter there has been no appointment of a paedi­atric cardiologist or ­cardiac surgeon based full-time at Randwick for more than 10 years and crucial services “continue to be eroded”.

The letter says the “degradation of onsite cardiac services” has ­“seriously impacted” newborn babies at the neighbouring Royal Hospital for Women, and children with cancer and other illnesses will be at risk if cardiac surgery ceases.

More than 80 per cent of children needing emergency retrieval from across the state, including regional areas, to paediatric intensive care were taken to Randwick last year.

In 2012, the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network was advised it would be safer and more sustainable to concentrate cardiac surgery at just one site.

Instead, the administration of the two units was merged, led by ­a Westmead-based paediatric ­cardiologist. The Randwick surgeons argue surgical outcomes at the hospital exceed international standards, and in a city as large at Sydney, it is not safe to transfer critically ill babies or for surgeons to drive by road between the two hospitals, and 24/7 cover is needed.

The Weekend Australian can reveal in June, the hospital’s medical staff council passed a vote of no-confidence in the directors of cardiothoracic services.

Other letters, leaked to The Weekend Australian, and sent to hospital adminis­trators and Mr Hazzard in the past eight months, allege that in several cases, critically ill children have been put at risk because they were transferred to Westmead unnecessarily.

In one case, the sole Randwick-based paediatric cardiac surgeon -- who currently provides 24/7 emergency cover for the hospital -- was about to board a plane with his family, but when Westmead-based surgeons were unable to ­attend, he returned to the hospital and saved a child’s life.

In a letter to hospital administrators dated August 10, the Randwick medical staff council said the Westmead-based directors had “failed to ­develop a viable two-site model” and that Randwick resources had been “deliberately under-utilised”.

The letter said at the same time, cardiac surgery at Westmead had a 59 per cent chance of cancellation the first time it was scheduled because its service was overstretched.

In another letter to Mr Hazzard in March, the head of the Randwick Medical Staff Council, Susan Russell, cited a case in which a newborn had a complex operation to repair his airways, and had heart defects that could have been operated on at Randwick but the cardiac team ­insisted on transferring him to Westmead.

The letter says this was “totally unnecessary” and “hazardous”.

In last night’s letter, doctors said the hospital at Randwick had no autonomy to appoint its own ­cardiac personnel.

“Families with children from throughout NSW who are ­referred to SCH Randwick deserve to have the full repertoire of major specialty services available to them onsite, for both emergency and non-urgent care,” it says.