Perth’s Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) has had to cancel several clinical sessions this week because of a shortage of anaesthetists, the tertiary facility’s chief has confirmed.
But acting chief executive of South Metropolitan Health Services Robyn Lawrence said new staff could now be hired after Health Minister Kim Hames yesterday granted the hospital an exemption from the Government’s recruitment freeze.
Yesterday, a leaked email obtained by the ABC revealed staffing issues within the hospital’s department of anaesthesia and pain management were “dire” and up to 26 surgical sessions per week would have to be cancelled.
Dr Lawrence said fewer than 26 would be cut this week.
“To put in perspective, between Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospital we have about 300 clinical sessions requiring anaesthetic support and of that seven were required to be cancelled this week,” she told 720 ABC Perth.
“It impacted directly on only two patients this week who needed to have their surgery rescheduled.”
Dr Hames yesterday revealed he had signed off on four new positions for the hospital’s department of anaesthesia and pain management.
Dr Lawrence welcomed the move.
“We are now working to resolve the staffing issues that have arisen over the last couple of months,” she said.
“They are about four what we call full-time equivalents, so four full people short in aesthetics out of a total of around 40.
“We have got people suitable to go into those roles. We have been impacted in the government freeze but we have just been successful in getting an exemption.”
FSH heads of department meeting planned
Dr Lawrence plans to hold a meeting with FSH heads of department tomorrow afternoon to help “deal with the financial position of the health service and the government recruitment freeze,” she wrote in an email to department heads.
One department head has already replied and foreshadowed hard decisions are likely be made about what services the hospital can actually provide and to what level.
Yesterday, a leaked email obtained by the ABC revealed staffing issues within the hospital’s department of anaesthesia and pain management were “dire” and up to 26 surgical sessions per week would have to be cancelled.
It said there had been a 28 per cent reduction in staff since the department opened, due to people resigning and not being replaced, and an inability to backfill people on long service leave because of the Government job freeze.
It is the latest problem on a long list of issues that have plagued the $2 billion hospital since it opened just over a year ago.
Senior clinicians at the $2 billion facility have also written a highly critical, anonymous letter to a Perth newspaper about the hospital’s operation.
The doctors accused Health Minister Kim Hames and senior bureaucrats of making wasteful decisions, which they were trying to fix through an “ill-advised cost-cutting plan”.
Premier Colin Barnett responded on Sunday by saying he was sick of people complaining about what is “probably the best hospital in the southern hemisphere”.