[ExI] government corruption

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/2/26 painlord2k at libero.it <painlord2k at libero.it>:

> http://socglory.blogspot.com/2009/02/australia-public-hospital-meltdown.html
> AUSTRALIA: THE PUBLIC HOSPITAL MELTDOWN CONTINUES
>
>> CLERKS with no medical training were allegedly made to bandage
>> wounds and assess patients at Bundaberg Hospital's emergency
>> department. The clerks were also asked to perform other nursing
>> duties such as putting ice on patients suffering strains, the Crime
>> and Misconduct Commission has been told.
>
>> A baby at a Queensland hospital was assaulted by a doctor who lost
>> his temper when the child wouldn't stop wriggling, and an elderly
>> patient was left to die in a hallway after being denied proper
>> treatment, according to allegations made to the Crime and Misconduct
>> Commission. Three hospital staff have sought whistleblower protection
>> after detailing allegations of gross medical neglect and
>> incompetence, overcrowding, bullying, intimidation and cover-ups at
>> the Bundaberg Hospital.
>>
>> A highly qualified nurse who spoke to The Courier-Mail told how she
>> was repeatedly made to falsify records to hide lengthy waiting times
>> in the emergency department. She said triage cases were improperly
>> and dangerously downgraded because of understaffing. She said a
>> troubled teenager who waited five hours without seeing a doctor ran
>> away and slashed her wrists. And a doctor said he was too busy to see
>> a boy who had been stabbed in the leg in a suspected child abuse
>> case. The cases are among 100 serious and minor procedural errors on
>> the hospital's prime reporting database.

Yes, the case of this particular hospital is well-known in Australia.
There are problems in isolated rural areas of Australia attracting
medical and nursing staff, either private or public, and more of the
burden falls on the public system since that at least the government
has some control over: they recruit staff from overseas to fill
vacancies. I have worked extensively in the public hospital system in
Melbourne for the best part of two decades and although I at work I
whine about the way things are run (overworked, underpaid,
understaffed, forced to document everything in excruciating detail in
for purposes of accountability and in case the hospital is sued) I can
honestly say that I have never been exposed to a part of the system
which would make me hesitant about being a patient there myself. Many
of my colleagues either don't have private health insurance or, like
me, only have the cheapest (almost useless) private health insurance
for the tax benefits, expecting to go into a public hospital if they
really needed to. The private hospitals tend to be smaller and
concentrate on simpler higher margin procedures on relatively well
people: if someone is very sick, has a condition which requires highly
specialised care, or if it looks like they will have a long admission
which their insurance won't cover, they put them in an ambulance and
send them to the nearest public hospital.



-- 
Stathis Papaioannou