LGH Downgrade: RosemaryArmitage

It is incredulous that Premier Paul Lennon could say that there has been no downgrading at the Launceston General Hospital (The Examiner, Dec 6) and that his Government remains committed to the LGH as a teaching and research hospital.

The fact that we have only one locum medical oncologist, one cardiologist, no vascular surgeons and are under funded to the tune of $20 million is testament to downgrading. Not to mention the rumour that a whole surgical ward is to be closed early next year.

How can Health and Human Services Minister Lara Giddings say that she is unable to source a medical oncologist despite advertising, when in Britain there is an abundance of qualified, English speaking oncologists looking for work?

There are also two vascular surgeons only too willing to come to the LGH.

What happens if our only cardiologist decides to leave the LGH, do we not replace him and thus lose one more essential service in Launceston.

No, Mr. Lennon, the LGH is not being downgraded, it is simply very quickly turning into the regional hospital that your health bureaucrats down south believe it should be.

It is now time to talk with our new Federal Labor Government and hope that some of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s promises can be realised with regard to health. If we leave it until 2009 for them to look at saving our public hospital, it will more than likely be too late for the LGH to ever fully recover.


RosemaryArmitage

Launceston General Hospital Support Fund

B&E LTD have set up a special account into which donations to the LGH Support Fund can be made. The fund has been set up to enable members of the community to make contributions towards a fund that will be used to meet special needs within the LGH that cannot be covered within the hospital’s normal operating budget.

Contributions to the LGH Support Fund can now be made at any B&E LTD Branch.

The collection taken up at the City Park Appeal Concert has provided $1,170 towards this fund and the Riverview Hotel Social Club has contributed a further $500.

Please make the existence of this fund known within your circle of friends.

EXAMINER LGH UPDATE 12/12/07

Danielle Blewett’s story in The EXAMINER (11/12/07) “Paperwork issue is costing the LGH - 'We will look to see if the procedure could be streamlined' is very concerning (THE URL FOR THIS STORY IS: http://northerntasmania.yourguide.com.au/news/local/health/paperwork-issue-is-costing-the-lgh-we-will-look-to-see-if-the-procedure-could-be-streamlined39/1102231.html)

In this story Danielle Blewett reports that there was “an oversight [which] means [that] the Launceston General Hospital could be spending up to $100,000 a month because its only medical oncologist does not have a Medicare prescriber number ... A Medicare prescriber number allows doctors to write prescriptions that are then paid for by the Commonwealth.”

IF the $100,000 estimate is indeed realised in one month that would represent the annual salaries of probably two administrative staff members. It would also represent a very significant amount of medical supplies of one kind or another.

What is almost more concerning is that within the administration, what seems to be going on is some shoulder shrugging and the saying of “oops we will look into how all this has happened and how it can be fixed”

In Danielle Blewett's follow up story "Prescriber number in the pipeline" (URL http://northerntasmania.yourguide.com.au/news/local/health/prescriber-number-in-the-pipeline/1103046.html) she reports that:
• oncologist Dr Andreas Weisser has been issued with a Medicare prescriber number;
• that it has been confirmed that the pharmaceutical division of Medicare would be giving Dr Weisser a prescriber number; and
• that it will just a few day before Dr Weisser can write prescriptions,"

Presumably, all the while that this is all being played out bureaucratically, the amount by which the LGH’s deficit (under funding?) grows and remains largely unaddressed. It also seems that this goes on while the hospital’s administration, and probably the health department too, awaits the assumed (anticipated?) arrival of the federal Labor Government’s White Knight on his/her charger carrying a rescue package.

For now, there doesn’t seem to be a desk upon which “the buck stops” nor does it seem that there is any real imperative to be resolving the LGH’s core administration and funding issues in the context of community needs.

Reading these stories together, it also seems there is an administrative culture of cost and blame shifting at work while the state health funding budget shrinks. The messages coming out of the ‘health system’ in Tasmania seems to be "trust us we are working on it and a solution is at hand."

However and interestingly, in another story by Alasdair MacDonald on DEC 12 "Birthday bash raises big bucks to buy equipment" (URL http://northerntasmania.yourguide.com.au/news/local/health/birthday-bash-raises-big-bucks-to-buy-equipment/1103044.html ) it seems that the community go on doing what it can besides paying its taxes to ensure that LGH can deliver the kind of service it needs and wants.

Here, as a result of private fundraising effort the LHG’s Children's Ward has a $10,000 a crash cart with a defibrillator, an ECG monitor and a pulse oximeter.

The community in northern Tasmania can only hope that the hospital’s administration, the state government and its health department will continue to see this kind of funding as “icing on the cake” rather than the means by which key items of equipment are acquired.

MIXED MESSAGES IN THE EXAMINER DEC 10

Firstly, there was a letter from Trevor Allen asking people to “Get behind the right people to fix LGH …. saying … Just imagine the LGH not being able to handle emergencies in the ways it has in the past. Imagine that you are involved in an accident of any kind in Launceston. …and also saying … northern Tasmanians need to get behind Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten, and LGH clinical staff.”

Then Raelene Morey reported on the start of employment for new nurses - Permanent positions for casuals with Stephen Ayre saying … “10 of the hospital's existing casual and temporary nursing staff would be offered permanent positions as part of the State's new three- year Nursing Enterprise Bargaining Agreement… and in the coming weeks the hospital would also offer positions to nurses on its employment list, which includes the names of about 15 nurses not currently working at the hospital".

Only four nurses would be employed in the intensive care unit, despite calls by Australian Nursing Federation branch secretary Neroli Ellis saying that up to 17 nurses were needed.

State Opposition health spokesman Brett Whiteley criticised the Government for overlooking the need for more nursing staff in the ICU but said "nothing surprises us anymore when it comes to the State Government".

And beside the fact that future development was flagged in Danielle Blewett’s story” Hospital senior managers call for five-level tower.” The story flagged the fact” the LGH will have a new $12 million department of emergency medicine by 2010, the hospital's department of surgery is calling for a broader development to cope with projected increased demand over the next 15 years.”

It reported that Professor Berni Einoder, Dr George Merridew and other senior members of the department called for the construction of a five-level tower….. “[that] needs to be functional within five years,"

The story reported that “Department of Health and Human Services deputy secretary Simon Barnsley confirmed that a site master planning exercise was under way for the new department …. and that Building is likely to start in 2009.”with a development application to be lodged with the Launceston City

Despite the flagged developments at LGH, in summary, and reading between the lines, it seems that the LGH is still in financial trouble despite new nursing positions being confirmed albeit if a third were already on staff and Intensive care would remain at a contentious staff level. Debt alleviation seems as far as it was last week.

The cynical could be excused for thinking there is a lot of smoke and mirrors in the bureaucratic decision making at LGH.

TASMANIAN LIBERALS ACCUSE ALP OF BEING MISLEADING OVER MERSEY HOSPITAL FUNDING

The ABC reports the Tasmanian Opposition as saying “at least one level of the Labor Party is misleading people about where savings from the Mersey hospital takeover will be spent.”

The report quotes State Minister, Lara Giddings, as saying she has already given $8 million to the Royal Hobart Hospital, and that will not be reversed.

It also reports Liberal Health spokesman, Brett Whiteley, as saying "we have Sid Sidebottom, and now today (Wed Dec 5, 2007), Jodie Campbell, giving an absolute assurance that every cent will be now spent in the north and the north-west …. and … Lara Giddings told 5,000 people in Launceston that would be the case - 2 days later, backflipped on that."

LGH Supporters seem to have good reason to be confused about, or even to be mistrustful of, government assurances in regard to the LGH’s status in the Tasmanian health system.

ABC REPORTS ON MAYOR’S MEETING WITH PREMIER

The Premier Paul Lennon and Tasmania's Health Minister were warned that the Launceston General Hospital is getting deeper into debt each year when they met with Mayor Albert Van Zetten yesterday (Des 5).

Ald. Van Zetten received assurances that the hospital would not be downgraded but he warned the Premier and the Health Minister that the hospital's mounting debt, now more than $20m, must be cleared.

Ald. Van Zetten’s concern is that the hospital’s debt is “accumulating, and therefore each year it eats into the budget for the next year”.

Arguably, this has had the effect of restricting the hospitals capacity to deliver the level of services northern Tasmanians need. Without a doubt, this situation is effectively downgrading the LGH.

To put all this in some perspective, senior clinicians at the LGH, Prof. Einodor among them, have been saying much the same as this for some time. Indeed, Prof. Einodor made the assertion at the Appeal Concert in City Park on Sunday that “ The LGH is not operating in deficit, rather it is under funded.”

Prof. Einodor also indicated that the $8m due to come to the LGH was more likely to be used to offset the deficit than it might be used to address issues that had arisen due to the under funding and thus the debt.

GO TO: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/05/2110830.htm to make a link to the ABC story online.

The meeting was also reported in today's Examiner GO TO: http://northerntasmania.yourguide.com.au/news/local/health/no-response-to-mayor39s-funds-query/1099439.html to make a link to the story.

Desperate Times at the Launceston General Hospital

The Launceston General Hospital’s Emergency Dept. says that its staff is in desperate need of a fridge for staff food. You see they don’t want get ill and they do want to continue to treat the sick !

Presumably they have drawn this to the bureaucrats' attention and have received a rebuff. Alternately, it may well be the case that a bureaucratic culture has emerged within the hospital that deters staff from making such requests no matter how reasonable or necessary they may be.

In any event it speaks volumes about the state of affairs that exist in our hospitals and the levels to which the bungling has sunk.

Now that the news is out a few things need to be done. Firstly, let’s assume that the emergency staff really do need this refrigerator. Secondly, let’s discover what sort of refrigerator best fits their needs.Thirdly, let’s find a sponsor to fix the problem.

Let’s just cut through and fix this problem ASAP!

After that, well the NEWS about this needs to spread far and wide so that people in northern Tasmania, and the politicians who represent them, can start to get a handle on just how bad, and silly, things are getting at the Launceston General Hospital.