The NSW Upper House Inquiry into Ambulance Ramping is set to continue today following a day of harrowing testimony by front line workers at Wednesday’s hearing.
The inquiry will continue to focus on ambulance wait times, bed block and emergency department times and hear from a range of sector stakeholders including Australian Medical Association NSW, The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia, physicians and NSW Health.
In a submission made to the Inquiry, the Australian Medical Association said, “Public hospitals were already facing capacity constraints before the pandemic, in terms of both numbers of beds and having the right staff at the right time.”
While Dr Kendall Bein submitted that, “Without a doubt the most troubling and tragic impact of ambulance ramping and access block is that it causes patient deaths.”
On Wednesday, the Inquiry heard from respected healthcare experts who revealed the impact of hospital ramping on health outcomes in NSW.
Dr James Tadros, Emergency Medicine Staff Specialist gave evidence that patients have deteriorated and died as a result of the delays in assessing and commencing treatment.
Dr Pramond Chandru, Emergency Medicine Staff Specialist gave evidence that delays were the exception in 2015, now they are the norm.
It shows hospital ramping and delays are putting both staff and patients at risk with Dr Clare Skinner, President Australasian College for Emergency Medicine noting that access block is a sign of broader dysfunction in the NSW Health system.
Meanwhile on Wednesday Minister for Health Brad Hazzard showed that he still has a tin ear to the crisis facing the NSW health system as he continues to blame COVID19 for issues caused by a decade’s worth of underinvestment by the Liberal National Government.
Mr Hazzard went on to blame frontline workers saying;
“One of the challenges we have here is that we can have very, very good clinicians – I’m not reflecting on those particular ones who commented yesterday, very, very good clinicians in terms of dealing with medical issues, but they don’t necessarily have the management skills to manage the flow through and that becomes a huge challenge.’
Before calling clinicians who called the systems standards third world, ‘utterly ridiculous’.
NSW Labor has started to outline its plan for long term structural repair of the health system, announcing $150 million for an additional 500 paramedics and $175 million to introduce safe staffing levels in public hospitals, starting with emergency departments.
Ryan Park, New South Wales Shadow Minister for Health said:
“After 12 years of a Liberal National Government the NSW Health system is in crisis, and this Inquiry is shining a further light on that. What we need is a Government that listens to what frontline workers are saying, not dismissing them.
“Emergency wait times are at record highs and both patients and medical professionals are suffering as a result of this governments underinvestment in our states hospitals.
RYAN PARK MP
NSW SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH
