EXCLUSIVE
Westmead Hospital: Won’t reopen until January 27. Photo: Kate Geraghty
The annual shut down of routine medical services over the Christmas period will be extended until the end of January at one of Sydney’s major teaching hospitals, raising concerns about further delays in emergency departments.
The bed closures are part of ongoing budget savings measures that threaten to clog emergency departments, warned Brett Holmes, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association general secretary.
Westmead Hospital has closed 58 beds over the Christmas period and will not reopen them until January 27, an internal document reveals. Dental services, routine cardiac testing and magnetic imaging of the brain will also close down for about two weeks in January.
The hospital’s Christmas plan, which started closing routine medical services on December 15, says that eight beds in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit will close from Monday December 22 until January 4. The stroke unit will be closed until January 27.
“During this period, oral health will be providing an emergency service only,” the plan says.
A senior clinician based in Western Sydney said bed numbers were being cut by about 10 per cent.
“It will have an impact on service delivery,” he said.
“Although people are on holidays, it is still a busy time of the year in relation to people being unwell, food poisoning, heart attacks are more common, trauma is more common,” he said.
“The community should be made aware of the cut-back in services.
“Elective surgery has been cut back, routine cardiac testing has been cut back, routine magnetic imaging of the brain.”
The NSW Opposition spokesman for health, Walt Secord, said some closures in major teaching hospitals were unavoidable over Christmas, but he was concerned about the number of beds being closed.
“I am deeply concerned about the decision to close 58 beds at Westmead Hospital during Christmas – especially when Western Sydney Local Health District is experiencing ‘bed block’ where patients are held in emergency department or in ambulances due to a lack of hospital beds,” he said.
“Westmead Hospital has the state’s most under-pressure hospital emergency department with 55 per cent of patients waiting more than four hours.
“Patients wait longer in emergency department; they wait longer for hospital beds and they wait longer for elective surgery like hernia operations, knee and hip replacements and for cataract removal.”
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said all NSW public hospitals – not just Westmead – have plans in place for the Christmas and New Year period to care for patients while also allowing staff time off to be with their families.
“This is common practice and has been happening for years,” she said. “Patients will still receive urgent and emergency care, including surgeries, during the holiday period.
“During the Christmas/New Year period, many clinicians wish to take holidays. There is also a drop in demand for elective surgical procedures with patients taking holidays. As such it is appropriate to adjust elective surgical activity to reflect this drop in demand.”
Ms Skinner said the drop in demand also allowed surgical staff to use accrued leave and gave local health districts the opportunity to undertake for minor capital works and essential maintenance without disrupting to patient care.
“NSW continues to lead the country when it comes to performing elective surgeries on time and I’m confident we will continue to meet our targets by the end of the year,” she said.
Professor Stephen Leeder, who chairs the Western Sydney Area Health Service, said the bed closures would not impact on patient safety because emergency services would still be provided:
“You can be confident it will not compromise patient well-being,” he said. “There will be no respite in accute emergency services, they will remain as they are.”
“The emergency services will not be compromised and will include having necessary catheteristion if there was an accute heart problem.
“During the vacation month the adequacy of staffing is not such that you can engage in elective procedures, like replacing hips or doing investigatory catheterisations that have no time frame.”
Professor Leeder said heart investigations using cardio catheterisation were exploratory and often not urgent and could wait for six to 12 weeks.