Sunday 24 January 2010

LABOR’S HEALTH FAILURES CONTINUE: TWO DAYS TO GET TREATMENT AT BLACKTOWN HOSPITAL

Labor’s health failures continue after a patient was turned away from a Sydney hospital after presenting with suspected acute appendicitis, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.

Matthew Hollands, 33, presented at Blacktown Hospital with suspected acute appendicitis on Saturday 24 October, but was told to ‘come back on Monday’ because the facility could not conduct an ultra sound on the weekend.

He subsequently spent the weekend in extreme pain and had his appendix removed on the Monday.

"No excuses from Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt can explain why it took two days for a potentially life threatening case of appendicitis to be adequately diagnosed, or any excuse for the callous treatment this patient suffered at the hands of Labor's broken health system,” Mrs Skinner said.

"The systemic failures in the emergency department in terms of diagnosing this patient could have caused him very serious harm, or even resulted in his death if treatment didn't commence when it eventually did,” she said.

"It seems that despite all the efforts of the Garling Inquiry, the State Labor Government and Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt have been unable to make any changes or solve any of the systemic problems in our public hospitals.

"The lack of weekend screening facilities shows how rundown our public hospital network has become after 15 years of this State Labor Government, highlighting the lack of funding, lack of resourcing and lack of staff.

"Under a NSW Liberals & Nationals Government, patients would come first.

“NSW public hospitals need a State Government that actually cares about patients and medical staff.

“The NSW Liberals & Nationals will start the change for better public hospitals by delivering a health system that puts patients first, and re-engages demoralised medical professionals,” Mrs Skinner said.