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Bathurst doctors wait for action |
18 February 2008: AMA (NSW) is distributing the statement below on behalf of the Medical Staff Council of Bathurst Hospital: The Bathurst Medical Staff Council wishes to thank the community of Bathurst for their continuing expressions of support, as well as our colleagues in Orange and the NSW AMA for standing behind our position.
We wish to reassure the people of Bathurst and the region that the doctors are not on strike as has been reported in some media outlets. We are continuing to serve at the hospital, assessing each person on a case-by-case basis.
In this challenging situation clinicians will do what they honestly consider to be in the best interests of the patient at hand. Where the risks of delaying treatment and transferring the patient elsewhere are deemed to be greater, staff have and will continue to provide definitive treatment at the new facility.
We wish to make our intentions clear, that by reducing the activity of the hospital to essential services only it allows the clinicians on duty a better opportunity to overcome significant operational problems and the dysfunctional aspects of the design and construction of the facility.
In this way they can best ensure the safe delivery of care to those patients who are there. It also allows clinicians the time and space to help the Area Health Service rectify the problems that are currently eroding the margins of safety.
It was the impression of the Medical Staff Council that the rectifications necessary to bring the building up to a safe and efficient operating condition befitting a modern 21st century hospital might require both time and quite possibly temporary relocation of services while refurbishments were made.
We have therefore asked for a moratorium on the demolition work that is about to commence on the old hospital building while further assessments are made. We believe this would be a prudent and reasonable precaution to take immediately.
This resolution was passed unanimously in our meeting last Wednesday as was our resolution to suspend elective surgery, and was reiterated to senior executives of GWAHS last Friday. While we have been told by GWAHS that substantial efforts were being made and are ongoing to rectify the immediate problems, unfortunately our wider concerns remain, and we therefore await their response.
There has already been significant discussion in the media asking how a brand new hospital could find itself in this position. While we will no doubt cooperate fully in any subsequent inquiry by GWAHS and other agencies, the doctors of Bathurst ask the community to support us in prioritising the immediate safety of patients at this time.
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