No Care in Healthcare

Exhausted nurses. Overworked doctors. Underpaid paramedics. Stressed hospital support staff. They have all been suffering in silence for years. Seldomly voiced opinions and recommendations consistently ignored, eventuating in employment terminations, pursuit of alternative career paths and mental health issues.

The strained, understaffed health care system and alarmingly unsafe working conditions and environment have resulted in significant judgment errors, omissions, gross negligence and denial of patients’ basic human rights. 

Distraught patients. Families in disbelief, helplessly observing their loved ones suffer preventable disability and death.

Enough is enough! We need to act now!

We are seeking your support to request the following from our politicians:

1. Establishing at least one 24-hour GP clinic adjacent to a WA hospital emergency department
This would enable GPs and health professionals to:

• assess immediate treatment urgency, requirements,completion of patient triage, providing for early detection of symptoms and faster diagnostic requests combined with the potential of telehealth being utilised for non-urgent result follow up and further review;

• provide treatment that does not require hospital attendance such as superficial suturing, significantly reducing waiting times and freeing up hospital beds;

• easily transfer patients over to the emergency department with initial treatment and diagnostic processes already in progress;

• deliver immediate response to mental health issues (which appear to be on a rise) by engaging psychologists or councillors to conduct emergency assessments and provide referrals. “Comfort pods” could be introduced allowing patients with to comfortably sit on allocated beanbags/chairs where the assessment process could be initiated. The clinic could engage psychology and counselling students via voluntary work placements enabling them to gain clinical experience during their study. 
 

2. Formation of an entirely independent healthcare service review body.
This would: 

• enable patients to report serious concerns;

• provide an avenue for clinical staff to safely report concerns to team rather than exclusively communicating with immediate management that often fails to convey this information due to career aspirations;

• provide greater employment safeguards for health care workers as investigations would be conducted independently and externally (rather than only internally under the current system);

• assist in monitoring hospital performance by issuing clear directives and imposing penalties for non-compliance;
 

3. Adequate service availability in hospitals on weekends for urgent diagnostic proceduresand consultation
 
Treatment delays caused by hospital staff reluctance to contact consultants during the weekend period due to anticipated additional expenses and potential internal and inter-department conflict and miscommunication are costing people lives! 

Additional costs associated with MRI and other diagnostic procedures performed during the weekend period are insignificant in comparison to costs of resources utilised for lengthy internal investigations, coroner’s inquiries and avoidable lifetime disability support and legal costs.

The difference between attending to urgent matters immediately over the weekend compared to “we’ll get that done on Monday” is preservation of eyesight, hearing and ability to independently walk out of the hospital.

Should we remain silent on these issues and be grateful we have a 50% chance of leaving the hospital via the special VIP exit, rolling out in style in a body bag? 

Subsequent “sorry” is worthless to the deceased or permanently disabled patients and their families. Millions of dollars are expended by hospitals to compensate patients and/or families for injuries and loss suffered due to their breach of duty of care. 

Could those same funds not be utilised more effectively by investing in prevention strategies and avoiding investigations, inquiries, reports, court proceedings and long term medical and support service costs?

Let’s bring back the care factor in healthcare!

Please sign the petition in support of patients and families currently impacted by the crumbling health care system, health professionals doing their best in the circumstances, people pushing for change, risking their livelihoods and in memory of those that the system failed, rarely acknowledged and permanently silenced either by burial/cremation or carefully drafted compensation settlement deeds binding them to lifetime silence.