“It is concerning that health services are being reduced due to a failure in recruiting vital hospital staff. Consolidating the Departments of Forensic Medicine at Glebe and Westmead Hospital(s) will put more pressure on already overworked forensic pathology staff,” said AMA (NSW) President Dr Brian Morton.

“This pressure does not only relate to pathology services. Doctors and nurses across the public hospital system are feeling the strain of not having enough resources or staff support,” he said.
 
A survey commissioned by AMA (NSW), the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) NSW and the NSW Nurses Association showed that 62 per cent of all  NSW public hospital medical staff and nurses have seriously considered leaving the public system in the last 12 months.

“We hope that this is not an indicator of future cuts in NSW public hospitals. AMA (NSW) can work with NSW Health to devise a recruitment plan for hospital staff, but will not support reducing services at the cost of quality patient care,” Dr Morton said.