By Simon Benson
The Daily Telegraph
March 11, 2009 08:29am
A $1 BILLION hospital project is in a shambles with the discovery that its operating theatres are too small for major operations and don't meet the national standards for minimum size.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that, of 18 theatres at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital 16 are below the recommended size for major surgery.
In a deepening of the crisis facing the decrepit New South Wales health system, surgeons and anaesthetists at the existing hospital, which serves a population of one million, claim that at least six theatres are so small they won't even be able to accommodate vital operating equipment.
Clinicians said they will not be able to perform major trauma, cardiac, spinal or cancer surgery in 90 per cent of the theatres as they are at least 10sq m too small.
In a repeat of the disaster at Bathurst Hospital, plans shown to the surgeons reveal that 10 of the theatres will be 52sq m and six will be 42sq m. The accepted minimum size for multi-function theatres is between 55 and 60sq m, they said.
It has also been revealed that urgent maternity patients will be located hundreds of metres away from theatres and that trauma victims transferred from the helipad to surgery would have to be pushed 259m on trolleys.
Head of Royal North Shore's trauma unit and chair of the medical staff council Tony Joseph said the situation was "ridiculous" and warned that the project was doomed to failure unless the plans were immediately redrawn.
"The surgeons have repeatedly expressed their deep concerns about the size of the theatres," Dr Joseph said. "They have said they will not be able to conduct complicated or major surgery in them."
The clinicians, who had been locked out of the design plans by the Government, have advised hospital CEO Matthew Daly of the problems.
Mr Daly is believed to have sought urgent talks with Health Department officials.
The Opposition has described the project as a "monumental blunder".
"It is either sheer stupidity or breathtaking incompetence for the Rees Government to be spending $1 billion to build a hospital where 16 out of 18 operating theatres are smaller than . . . guidelines recommend, with some so small they can't fit vital medical equipment," Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said.
"I sympathise with doctors who are screaming in frustration trying to get the State Labor Government to realise they are building a hospital that won't be able to perform the world-class surgery that is expected of it.
"The decision to locate the helipad on top of the existing Douglas Building is utter madness. It will not only jeopardise the lives of patients, it will make NSW the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to major infrastructure projects."
Emphasis added by ANV
Australia's Doctors, Nurses and Clinicians are sought out all over the world for their skill and dedication to their profession and patients.
Since the introduction of Medi Bank now called Medi Care,thirty years of socialized medicine has seen these highly skilled and dedicated professional driven into the ground mentally and physically by the crushing weight of the Socialist bureaucracy.
The largest increase in MediCare expenditure is in the spending on and increasing the size of the bureaucracy. the back room boys and gals, union officials and hangers on, that make up the socialist Comrades all aboard gravy train, of that most infamous oxymoron the "public service"
This debacle is the Labor Party's latest three legged,four arsed 3 dicked 18 balled Donkey that they are trying to pass off as socialist medicine's prize state of the art thoroughbred racehorse.
The bio of one of Labor's movers and shakers and expert on operating theater and hospital design, NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca, below. See this link for his and his wife's most infamous contribution to public service. Socialised medicine in Australia.
Minister for Health, Minister for the Central Coast and Vice President of the Executive CouncilNSWALP
John Della Bosca joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of 17, inspired by the national leadership of Gough Whitlam. Politically active from a young age John rose through his branch and electorate council to hold a place on the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party.
John has dedicated his life to the Labour-movement and creating a modern Australia. He worked as a researcher for the then Senator Kerry Sibraa, before becoming the National Research Officer for the Australian Transport Officers’ Federation. John went on to become the union’s State Organiser in 1981.
Two years later John became the State Organiser of the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party, then Assistant Secretary in 1985. In 1990 John became the General Secretary of the NSW Branch. For nine years John worked to ensure the working families of NSW were represented by Labor men and women at all levels of government.
John was elected to the NSW Legislative Council in 1999. He has served in a number of Ministerial capacities, including Special Minister of State, Industrial Relations, Ageing and Disability, Commerce, Education and Training.
He is now Minister for Health, Minister for the Central Coast and Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council.
Among his achievements as a Minister are an additional billion dollars in funding for disability services; a new evidence based approach to drug policy; lifetime care for people catastrophically injured in motor vehicle accidents (regardless of fault); and changes to the WorkCover scheme which increased benefits, dramatically lowered premiums and eliminated a $3.2 billion deficit.
John has raised his family on the Central Coast of NSW and is a passionate advocate of the region.
And Westmead Hospital, a Hospital Labor would describe as the "working families" Hospital, has simply run out of money
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