Doctors in the key New South Wales election battleground of western Sydney say they are struggling to cope with the increasing demand for services, with some patients having to endure lengthy waits for emergency surgery.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been pledged by both parties towards health services in the area, and doctors say investment is urgently needed.
Blacktown Hospital general surgeon Fred Betros said a lack of beds and operating theatres meant many patients were forced to wait for important medical treatment.
“I don’t think it’s unsafe medicine, but having a patient wait 12 to 24 hours to have their appendix out – and it doesn’t just happen here – I think we can do better than that,” he said.
“I think we could do a much better job for our patients if more resources were available.”
Coalition Health Minister Jillian Skinner promised $750 million to upgrade Westmead Hospital, including a new acute services building with an emergency department and up to 14 operating theatres. An additional $72 million would be spent building a new car park.
There is also $95 million for the Children’s Hospital at Westmead to expand the emergency department, operating theatres and day surgery unit and to construct the new Developing Mind Centre.
Labor pledged $430 million for Westmead Hospital and $351 million in Nepean Hospital. It also promised to spend $100 million on a paediatric surgical ward at Campbelltown Hospital.
The party’s health spokesman Walt Secord said a Labor government would spend $96 million on 840 additional nurses in 75 emergency departments and paediatric wards in the state.
Chronic disease putting a strain on system
Western Sydney has New South Wales’ highest rate of diabetes and lung disease, with very high rates of heart disease and obesity as well.
Mount Druitt GP Kean-Seng Lim said that put enormous pressure on the health system.
“Patients with diabetes, lung disease and heart disease are far more likely to end up in hospital and are far more likely to be readmitted after they have been admitted one time,” he said.
Dr Lim has run a busy practice in Sydney’s west for 20 years. He said there had been an explosion in lifestyle-related illnesses such as obesity and high blood pressure.
“To weigh my patients, I used to have scales that went up to 130. Now I need scales for 250 kilos,” he said.
Australian Medical Association NSW president Dr Saxon Smith said increased demand in western Sydney was placing stress on medical staff.
“Increasingly, doctors are describing it as a battlefield to be able to see, treat and give the quality care that patients deserve and that we want to deliver,” he said.
“There hasn’t been an increased number of beds over the last decade and unfortunately we need that investment now.”
He said sicker patients were turning up at western Sydney hospitals, with heart attacks and strokes, not problems that could be dealt with by a GP.
“Staff are working as hard as they can, but with hospitals at capacity, there is simply no increased capacity to grow,” he said.
Both the Coalition and Labor have said they plan to make more health funding announcements closer to the election.