August 3 2019 - 12:00AM
The Canberra Times
Calls for full-time doctors at Tumut Hospital
Finbar O'Mallon
Latest News
The lack of full-time doctors based at Tumut Hospital is putting locals at risk, the community association has warned.
It comes as Murrumbidgee Local Health District apologises to the family of local Wiradjuri woman Naomi Williams for the hospital's failures to provide proper care before she died.
The Tumut Community Association is gathering signatures for a petition to NSW parliament to call for two full-time doctors at the hospital.
Tumut is a small town on the western side of the Snowy Mountains, south west of Canberra.
The association's calls come as the deputy state coroner delivered her final report on the death of Ms Williams, a local Indigenous woman, on Monday.
Ms Williams died from sepsis on New Year's Day 2016. At 27 years old and 22 weeks pregnant, she presented to the hospital in the early hours complaining of pain and nausea. She was turned away after 30 minutes and given two painkiller tablets.
She later collapsed at home, returned to hospital in an ambulance where she was declared dead at about 3pm that day.
Tumut local Naomi Williams, who died on New Year's Day 2016 after being turned away from Tumut Hospital earlier that day.
Ms Williams had presented to hospital with similar symptoms at least 15 times in the months leading up to her death. At one point her shoulder and abdominal pains were dismissed as "morning sickness", according to court documents.
Murrumbidgee health district chief executive Jill Ludford said she met with Ms Williams' family to apologise for her death.
Coroner Harriet Grahame's recommendations included getting the Murrumbidgee health district to weed out any systemic racial bias at the hospital amongst staff, as well as moving the hospital to a nurse led care system.
The hospital currently runs under a "Visiting Medical Officer" policy, where four GPs in Tumut are on call 24/7. Nurses at the hospital call in a doctor to attend the patient if necessary.
Ms Ludford said the number of doctors in Tumut had shrunk recently.
"Despite the range of financial and training incentives offered by both commonwealth and state governments, attracting and recruiting specialists to regional facilities in general, is challenging," she said.
Ms Ludford said the district would carefully review Ms Grahame's findings.
The community association welcomed all nine of Ms Grahame's findings, except the recommendation to move to a nurse directed emergency care policy.
"We have concerns that the coroner's recommendations failed to address the fact the problem occurred under nurse led management," the association said in a statement.
A nurse directed policy would see specially trained registered nurses care for patients with a medical officer available for consultation.
The Murrumbidgee health district was asked to clarify the difference between this policy and the current visiting medical officer policy but did not respond before deadline. Tumut's nearest hospital with full-time doctors is in Wagga.
The community association's Col Locke said his son-in-law recently had to spend a week with a broken ankle.
When he initially presented to Tumut Hospital he was unable to receive an X-ray for a week because no one accredited to do so was available, before he was told to travel to Wagga Base Hospital.
He said this was an example of the effect a lack of full-time doctors was having at the hospital. Mr Locke said the tragedy surrounding Ms Williams could happen again if doctors weren't employed. He said a lot of locals had to go to Wagga for more demanding procedures, which carried a high financial burden if they had to find their own accommodation in town.
In her report on Ms Williams' death, Ms Grahame said the evidence showed she was unhappy with her level of care at Tumut, was dismissed by staff and this would have had an effect on her returning to hospital earlier on the day she died. Ms Grahame also pointed to the local Indigenous' community's perception that Tumut Hospital was unsafe for Aboriginal people.
On Monday Ms Williams' cousin Professor Anita Heiss said the family was putting the local health system on notice.
Outside the Tumut Court House on Monday where Ms Grahame delivered her findings, Ms Williams' cousin Professor Anita Heiss said the family was putting the local health system on notice.
"If you're an Aboriginal woman and you know a local Aboriginal woman went to Tumut hospital and was turned away and died a few hours later, would you go to Tumut Hospital?" Professor Heiss said.