Hello, possum - but in a hospital unit?
Kate Benson Medical Reporter
SMH
August 24, 2009
THIS photograph was taken in the intensive care unit at the ailing Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital. Staff found the brush-tailed possum sitting among open boxes of face masks, gloves and surgical sponges, its faeces scattered across the counter.
Hornsby Hospital intensive care unit
It was sent to the Herald only days after one of the state's most senior health bureaucrats denied claims the hospital had a big problem with possums, known to spread deadly golden staph and e.coli infections.
The photo was taken in 2005 but staff say possums have been plaguing the hospital for more than a decade and are removed weekly from wards and offices.
Desperate for help, they sent the picture to the Health Department at the time it was taken but the warning went unheeded. And one senior official used it as a point of laughter to show visitors to his office.
After the possum was found, staff in the intensive care unit locked up medical supplies but say maintenance workers regularly move the animals to boxes in trees within the grounds.
''The one in the intensive care unit is not an isolated case. It's par for the course around here,'' one doctor said.
Possums, which have a lifespan of 15 years, can carry deadly diseases easily transmitted to humans, including Lyme disease, leptospirosis, rickettsia and mycobacteriosis, which can cause abscesses, fistulas, headaches, vomiting and renal failure.
Their faeces can carry the gut parasite cryptosporidium and their urine can cause breathing problems for asthmatics.
Any animal in a hospital was a health risk but some, such as possums, were known to spread superbugs such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, said an infectious diseases expert at Canberra Hospital, Peter Collignon. ''Allowing a wild animal, which scavenges far and wide, to contaminate gloves and surgical equipment is obviously a real problem.''
The chief executive of the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service, Matthew Daly, last week rejected allegations that the hospital had been neglected but did not deny continuing possum problems.
All reports of possum urine had been addressed, he said. ''Possum nests were in a derelict buildings and were subsequently removed,'' he said.
Up to six possums might live in the roof space of a family home, but more than 25 would probably be found in a hospital, said David Bennett, the owner of a possum removal service in Adelaide.
''You definitely wouldn't want them in a hospital. And unless you get an expert in, there is no way to keep them out. They are highly territorial and will immediately return to where they were.''
A spokeswoman for the area health service said yesterday the present management was not aware of the photo and an inspection of the hospital last week found no evidence of possums in wards or patient areas. ''All such reports are taken seriously and are dealt with at the time,'' she said.
Do you know more about this? kbenson@smh.com.au
The Australian Socialist FREE “Health system” Medi (don't) Care,is,after 30 years of FREE,come one come all hand outs and bloated bureaucracy,just about on its’ knees.
The story above,of the resident intensive care Possum,whilst,if you discount the potential for cross infection,is somewhat funny,however generally there is nothing to laugh about the many other tales of the consequences of the dead hand of International Socialism’s interference in Australian’s lives.
Australians have learnt long ago that Socialized Medicine is run for the benefit of the Socialist Ideology and the carpetbaggers in the Australian Labor Party and their Marxist financiers,the Australian Council of Trade Unions,who support and promote it, it has not and never will be for the benefit of the sick and the poor.
Medi DON’T Care and neither will Obama
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"Basically we were told to wait, there was no staff," he said.
"She was basically screaming down the whole place, she was screaming in agony.
"(We) requested an epidural an hour and half before the water was broken. (We were told) 'guess what guys, the anesthetist is too busy' ... the anesthetist never showed up."
He said his wife got up, screaming saying: 'it feels like a bowling ball coming out of me'.
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NSW hospital deaths, injuries revealed
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The death of a 76-year-old woman from the Casino district of northern New South Wales has been referred to the Health Care Complaints Commission.
Details of the case were revealed in Lismore yesterday during a sitting of the special commission of inquiry into NSW public hospitals.
Elizabeth Lane says her mother was not properly fed or cared for by medical staff at the Lismore and Casino hospitals in the fortnight leading up to her death.
"It was a battle for two weeks. The medical staff, wouldn't listen to anything we were saying," she said.
"They looked at us as grieving daughters who could not accept their mother's death.
"I have read some of the other transcripts and there are people that have similar stories, but nothing quite as serious I believe as what happened to mum."
The North Coast Area Health Service is refusing to comment on specific cases, but says it welcomed the hearing and thanked everyone who gave evidence.
The above links are but some of thousands that detail the great Socialist Hoax of Universal Health Care in Australia, there are far worse examples of the contempt this evil has for Australians needing health care.
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