A week after Maitland Hospital broke records for all the wrong reasons, the dire state of it’s Emergency Department has been highlighted in NSW Parliament.
Last week the Bureau of Health Information released it’s latest report – it finding that one in four leave before treatment is completed, while almost 40 per cent who stay spend more than four hours waiting.
Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison has slammed the NSW Government after the NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet refused to admit there was a staffing crisis.
Ms Aitchison asked about an elderly patient who had waited over 100 hours on an Emergency Department trolley at Maitland Hospital, and was only admitted after they had deteriorated to such a level that they required a bed in the Intensive Care Unit.
“As I’ve said Mr Speaker, we know and every Premier knows we have the strongest health system anywhere in the country if not the world,” said the Premier.
“The Health Minister knows half a billion, Maitland Hospital, half a billion for Maitland Hospital Mr Speaker. You didn’t even mention Maitland Hospital when you were in government, we come in and half a billion dollars for Maitland Hospital.”
Ms Aitchison tried to get the Premier to answer the question a number of times, calling on the Government to address the staffing shortages.
“A quality health system is not about new bricks and mortar, it’s about supporting the people in it – the patients and our dedicated, hardworking and burnt-out health staff.”
“Ask anyone who has been to Maitland hospital recently, and they will tell you that our health staff are doing a fantastic job in impossible circumstances. We desperately need more staff across the entire hospital.
“Tragically, we are seeing more and more patients leaving the emergency department without getting treatment. When they inevitably come back, their health issues are even more urgent.
“It’s only a matter of time before someone dies as a result of the Government’s failure to properly staff the hospital,” she said.