Posted on 11/12/2007 1:38:37 PM PST by DogByte6RER
'Cockroaches on operating tables during surgery' at RNS
A parliamentary inquiry into Sydney's Royal North Shore (RNS) hospital has heard a claim of live cockroaches being killed on operating theatre tables during surgeries.
A submission from retired RNS doctor Henry Sleye Hughes also claims some of the hospital's operating tables are so old, one broke in two while a patient was anaesthetised.
New South Wales Health Minister Reba Meagher was the first witness to front the inquiry, set up after 32-year-old Jana Horska miscarried in the hospital's emergency room toilets after waiting two hours for treatment.
Ms Meagher has told the inquiry the hospital was recently given a top-to-toe clean after nursing staff raised concerns about the state of its cleanliness in late September.
But Nationals MP Jenny Gardiner says Dr Sleye Hughes's submission suggests the hospital has been dirty for some time.
"He refers to the killing of live cockroaches on operating theatre tables during operations," she said. "That is not acceptable is it?"
When Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner asked about the claims, Area Health Service chief Mattew Daly told the inquiry he had heard of the incident in which an operating table broke.
"I was also aware there was no injury to the patient due to the good work of the theatre staff," he said.
"Catching the patient?" Ms Skinner replied.
Mr Daly said the hospital's capital needs were an issue that had to be addressed.
'In the red'
Ms Meagher earlier admitted the hospital was over its allocated budget and the chief executive was looking to make savings.
She said the hospital's operating budget was increased this financial year but it was already in the red.
But she said the cutbacks would not be made at the expense of front-line staff and services.
"There will be no cuts to nurses, no cuts to doctors and no cuts to beds," she said.
"Our investment in front-line services will continue to increase in those important areas, but it is important that the hospital's financial management is improved and there have been a number of ideas floated."
Witnesses
The Minister has been allotted an hour and 15 minutes for questions at the first of three scheduled public hearings.
Ms Meagher will be followed later in the day by hospital administrators and representatives of the Australian medical and nurses' associations.
Ms Horska will tell her story to the inquiry on the second day of hearings this Friday.
She and her partner, Mark Dreyer, were invited to speak to a separate inquiry, which examined her treatment at the hospital, but did not do so.
Hey! Hey! cockroaches are victims too!
I spent more than half my life with military medicine. No, thanks.
It beats letting them run amok, don't it?
There is no pleasing some people.
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