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| Ryan Park MLC |
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| Janelle Saffin MLC |
NSW Shadow Minister For Health Ryan Park and Labor Member For Lismore Janelle Saffin deserve the region's thanks for both their efforts to spread the word that the state’s north-east would have a chance to speak directly to the NSW Legislative Council Inquiry Into Health Outcomes And Access To Health And Hospital Services In Rural, Regional And Remote New South WalesHealth Outcomes And Access To Health And Hospital Services In Rural, Regional And Remote New South Wales in Lismore on 17 June 2021, for lobbying to have a webcast of this public hearing and for their attendance on the day.
ABC North Coast, 17 June 2021:
A state parliamentary inquiry has heard some rural residents in northern New South Wales are being left "stranded" outside hospitals late at night with no way of getting home.
The NSW Upper House inquiry is examining the challenges people face in seeking medical care in remote, rural and regional areas.
Bonalbo pharmacist Sharon Bird told the inquiry some residents with chronic and complex illnesses are travelling more than 100 kilometres to access health services with virtually no public transport.
She said many residents "give up" on seeing a doctor because "it all gets too difficult".
"Many of my customers have had negative experiences when accessing healthcare in the referral centres," Mrs Bird said.
"Like being abandoned in Lismore in their pyjamas after an emergency ambulance trip with no way to get home again.
"[Many] are reluctant to seek help or call an ambulance again."
Northern NSW Local Health District chief executive Wayne Jones said steps had been taken to ensure such incidents did not happen again.
"Unfortunately we have failed in several of those occasions, but I can tell you it is not the standard of what we have tried to achieve," he told the inquiry.
"We have put memos out to staff reminding them we've increased our own patient transport vehicles locally, we have community transport contracts and we have a clear position that particularly after 8:00pm if people can't find a way home we need to find accommodation for them."
Residents need to 'schedule their accidents'
The inquiry heard the towns of Bonalbo and Coraki had struggled to attract general practitioners, often leaving residents with limited or no access to doctors.
Mrs Bird said Bonalbo had an X-ray machine but no staff to operate it and only one radiographer for two hours a fortnight, so residents would need to "schedule their accidents for that day".
The chair of the Ballina Cancer Advocacy Network Maureen Fletcher also gave evidence, talking about the dire need for increased funding for cancer care coordinators in the region.
She said many patients had "suffered needlessly" because they did not know what services were available before, during and after cancer treatment.
Ms Fletcher said there was one man who lost half his nose after melanoma surgery and felt socially isolated.
"He only found out that a prosthetic nose was available when a fellow patient in hospital asked why he didn't have it," she said.
Flow-on effects
The inquiry also heard from residents who spoke about the difficulties that arose from the region's reliance on south-east Queensland for specialist care.
Andre Othenin-Girard said he suffered on and off from atrial fibrillations and had been waiting almost three years to see a cardiologist on the Gold Coast, which was complicated by the Queensland border closure.
He said he had been hospitalised five times at Lismore Base Hospital while he waited.
The committee has been warned that the access to and availability of medical services could deter highly skilled people and businesses from moving to regional NSW.
Veterinarian Florian Roeber told the hearing he had to make at least 15 trips to the Gold Coast after being diagnosed with a neurological condition.
He said he moved to the state's north from Melbourne and believed he would have had better access to care if he had stayed in the city.
"I kind of regretted my decision to move to regional NSW because it led to a potentially worse outcome for me," Dr Roeber said…...
Problems are not confined to just the Northern NSW Local Health District. At Taree on the Mid-North Coast on 16 June the Inquiry heard the following.....
The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 June 2021:
A NSW hospital serving nearly 100,000 people has been relying on cleaners to look after dementia patients due to severe staffing shortages, a parliamentary inquiry heard.
Doctors, nurses and patients lined up to vent their frustration and despair as the inquiry into regional health travelled to Taree and Lismore for public hearings on Wednesday.
The inquiry heard that at Tamworth, "ghost" operating theatres are being used for storage and for staff to make quiet phone calls because the hospital is struggling to find specialists to use them.
Tamworth has the busiest non-metropolitan emergency department in NSW.
Three senior doctors delivered a scathing assessment of the state of affairs in Taree on the state's mid-north coast, which is serviced by Manning Base Hospital.
"Houston we have got a problem and the problem I'd like to talk to you about is workforce," said Dr Simon Holliday, a rural GP with three decades' experience and a staff specialist at Manning Base Hospital.
He said less than 5 per cent of Australian-trained doctors were choosing to practise in rural areas which was a "disaster" for people living outside capital cities.
Dr Holliday said overseas-trained doctors from developing countries were stepping in to fill the void which was tantamount to "reverse foreign aid".
He said there was an epidemic of burnout among the foreign-trained doctors, who were having a "horrific time" as they were used as "cannon fodder" in understaffed facilities.
Dr Holliday was critical of the Australian Medical Association for refusing to endorse medical conscription, where doctors are made to serve in regional and rural areas.
"Australia needs to start providing Australian-trained workforce for rural areas," he told the upper house committee.
"Today you've heard about the pain and anguish in our community, as in many other regions' communities, and you have the weight of our expectations on your shoulders."
Dr Seshasayee Narasimhan said chronic underfunding had rendered Manning Base an “exhausted and severely downgraded hospital” that was “not appealing for new recruits”.
“No one wants to come here,” he said.
The Taree region has only one cardiologist serving a population of nearly 100,000 people and the worst cardiovascular outcomes of anywhere in regional Australia.....
President of the Manning Great Lakes Community Health Action Group Eddie Wood said the hospital's dementia ward had been shuttered without any consultation with the community.
"The cleaners on the ward have been asked to monitor and sit with the dementia patients," he said. "Dementia patients deserve the same level of care as anyone else ... it's horrendous."
Marion Hosking OAM later told the inquiry her son had been present at the hospital when the gardener was brought in to sit beside a troubled dementia patient.
But Mr Wood said assurances from the hospital administrators and local health district that there was no staffing problem further incensed the community.
“You say that to the ... first year graduate nurse who is put in charge of a ward,” Mr Wood said.
Mr Wood said only half of the 18 beds in the emergency department were funded and staffed......
“When you see your hospital and your staff demoralised and leaving, it’s atrocious,” he said.....
