AUSTRALIA'S UNENDING PUBLIC MEDICINE PROBLEMS

Two current articles below

NSW Ambulance bureaucracy indifferent to staff welfare

Not exactly a surprise

AMBULANCE management had been "grossly negligent and dismissive" in handling complaints by a female officer about bullying at Cowra before she eventually committed suicide, her former supervisor has told a parliamentary inquiry. The Herald has learnt that no women have been appointed to the Cowra ambulance station in the three years since the first and only female officer there, Christine Hodder, hanged herself in her backyard after allegedly enduring years of bullying and harassment by up to seven male colleagues.

An internal investigation by the NSW Ambulance Service after Mrs Hodder's death in 2005 recommended a male replace her and that no female be hired there for six months. There were 24 recommendations "to address better management of harassment and bullying" but no officer was disciplined after the investigation.

Mrs Hodder's former supervisor, Phil Roxburgh, said his complaints had fallen on deaf ears. He told the inquiry he was fed up with the "harassment, bullying, and intimidation which still continues unabated in the service, coupled with management's dysfunctional handling and empty posturing concerning these occurrences".

Yesterday Mr Roxburgh told the Herald he had received more than 100 emails of complaints after sending a group email in April expressing concern about bullying. "I couldn't do anything for Christine and myself - it's too late for that - but I'm hearing of people who have received some very bad outcomes from management," he said. "It's like water torture. You're left to hang and hang. I've got a couple of people who are on the verge of suiciding."

Mr Roxburgh had supported Mrs Hodder while she was at Cowra but he was also victimised and went on stress leave in October 2004, he told the inquiry. He said the professional standards and conduct unit "patently failed to respond in a timely and appropriate way" despite his warnings. He had also raised concerns with human resources, rehabilitation, and the state superintendent, and had even tried to speak to the CEO of the service, Greg Rochford, but "this fell on deaf ears". He accused the head of the conduct unit, Marion O'Connell, of being "very aggressive" when he criticised the internal investigation.

Mrs Hodder's mother-in-law, Carolynn Hodder, and Mr Roxburgh each told the inquiry that the then assistant operations manager leaked a complaint from Christine Hodder about a man whom she suspected had urinated "all over" her toilet. "Things at the station became explosive - [the accused person] became very verbally abusive towards her and he told Christine, 'See I told you. You have no chance seeking help from anyone above or the union as we will find out,' " Carolynn Hodder told the inquiry.

Mr Roxburgh told the inquiry the assistant operations manager had since been promoted. Christine Hodder had worked before as an ambulance officer at Canowindra and Grenfell and had got on well with her fellow officers. She had been an army medic for six years. Mr Roxburgh, who now works at Moruya ambulance station, said Mrs Hodder was victimised because she was a woman. "My colleague's problems were, first and foremost, that she was female and to exacerbate this she was intelligent, a good officer and her patients loved her," he wrote. "The constant harassment, bullying and intimidation by the staff, the callous indifference, inaction and abandonment by the service. all contributed to tipping the scales."

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Hospital urgent waiting list blows out

Gold Coast Liberal MP John-Paul Langbroek has blasted the State Government for not seeing the "sickest" patients first at the Gold Coast Hospital. Langbroek, member for Surfers Paradise, said Category One elective surgery patients, which are those requiring the most urgent attention on waiting lists, had almost doubled in the past 12 months. Figures released by Queensland Health indicate there were 25 people on the Category 1 waiting list last July and 58 in April this year.

"What this shows is our sickest patients are waiting far longer for treatment than they should be," Langbroek said. "The Gold Coast Hospital is struggling to cope with the demand." "As a result, our waiting lists are getting longer and patients are getting sicker as they are forced to wait for vital surgery."

However, a Government spokesman said the figures Langbroek was quoting were out of date and the latest figures, which will be released soon, show Gold Coast Hospital had only 23 patients on the Category 1 list. He did concede that numbers for Category 1 list at some hospital had risen. The figures show Category One patients almost doubled but there had been a decrease in categories 2 and 3. On July 1 2007, there were 205 Category 2 patients and 213 Category 3, while on April this year there were 176 and 168 respectively.

Langbroek said the Government was not making all categories a priority. "The bottom line is we shouldn't have to sacrifice one wait list for another, said Mr Langbroek. "The Government is spending record amounts on health. Patients should have no problem getting their surgery on time."

During the same period, Category 1 waiting lists numbers had increased at Bundaberg, Cairns Base, Caloundra General, Hervey Bay, Innisfail, Mackay Base, Maryborough Base, Nambour, Princess Alexandra, QEII, Rockhampton and Royal Children's hospitals.

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