LISMORE, NORTHERN NSW — The NSW Parliament Legislative Council’s Rural Regional Remote Health inquiry is hearing evidence in country New South Wales.

During evidence at the inquiry yesterday the Northern NSW Local Health District CEO Wayne JONES denied doctors were under pressure to discharge patients to free up beds or meet key performance indicators.  Mr JONES instead blamed a lack of preparation for the “rare” instances.

Wayne JONES, who are you kidding?  We didn’t come down in the last shower. The general public doesn’t have to run local health districts to see glaring omissions and failures happening on your watch.  These LHD CEOs are the people in charge!  For God’s sake, spare us, please.

Wait till you’re in hospital Wayne JONES and get a taste of your own medicine.

NSW Ministry of Health can’t work out what is wrong?  Stupidity rules.

Read the story in full in today’s Sydney Morning Herald by Carrie Fellner:

Lismore Base Hospital ‘booted out’ patients in the middle of the night in their pyjamas

NEW SOUTH WALES, MID NORTH COAST — Today’s hearings into Rural Regional Remote Health inquiry raised another criminal doctor Emil GAYED that our regulators deliberately omitted to oust and failed his patients who were injured by his medical methods.

Now we have another Local Health District CEO saying “sorry”.  Well, Hunter New England Health CEO Michael DiRIENZO, your sorry doesn’t cut it.  MEAG wrote to you repeatedly about this criminal practising as a doctor, you deemed fit to allow the public to be damaged, and did nothing.  You’ve still got your job?  How is this?  Shall we list all the other stuff-ups you have covered up?

Reminder to read the ABC News Mid North Coast Kerrin Thomas’ story:

Disgraced gynaecologist Emil Gayed continued to operate due to inadequate oversight, regional health inquiry hears

Europe —  German firm TUV Rheinland was negligent in awarding safety certificates to a French company which made faulty breast implants, a Paris court ruled, a decision advocacy groups said paved the way for thousands of women worldwide to seek damages.

More than 300,000 women received implants that were made in the 10 years up to 2010 by PIP (Poly Implant Prothèse) and filled with cheap, industrial-grade silicone not cleared for human use.

Aumaitre said the court’s ruling meant that TUV’s negligence left it solely responsible for paying damages.

“After 10 years of waiting and fierce combat, the German certifier will have to fully compensate the victims,” said Aumaitre.

Read the full story by Matthieu Protard and Richard Lough of Reuters:

French court orders damages for victims of PIP breast implant scandal

Read more of MEAG’s work on this:  PIP breast implants: A ruptured disaster

PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA —

The parents of Aishwarya Aswath, who died at Perth Children’s Hospital on Easter Saturday, have released the full confidential report into their daughter’s death.

The investigating panel found the seven-year-old could’ve been saved if it wasn’t for a number of mistakes.

It revealed there was a “cascade of missed opportunities” by hospital staff to save Aishwarya.

The full 29-page report showed her parents pleaded with nurses on five separate occasions but their concerns were overlooked.

  RIP Aishwarya Aswath

READ MORE OF AMBER JOHNSTON AND LUCY QUAGGIN OF 7NEWS REPORT:

Aishwarya Aswath’s parents release damning report into her death at Perth Children’s Hospital

SYDNEY —

Four mental health nurses have been deregistered after an indigenous patient with a history of self-harm killed himself on their night shift at a large Sydney hospital.

Staff were required to take observations every 30 minutes, but a coroner found the patient could have been dead from between two and eight hours before he was found at 7.30 am on May 27, 2017.

The Health Care Complaints Commission took disciplinary action against the five nurses on duty that night, contending they failed to provide proper observations and make appropriate records for the patient in the acute mental health unit.

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Tuesday found four guilty of professional misconduct but dismissed the case against the fifth nurse, Phoebe CHIKUKU.

Emma Kate BROWN was deregistered for two years, Mehul Mukundray DUDHELA and Jill Louise WATKINS for 18 months, and Florence EGBUFOR for 12 months.

Read more of AAP’s Margaret Scheikowski story:

Nurses deregistered after patient death

This is a disgrace.  It’s a task for the Department of Public Prosecutions.  Hospitals need to bring in the Army and instil discipline in nurses who cannot do their basic job properly.  Hospitals need Matron to wield the heavy hand.  Matrons once ruled hospitals, now no one does, except spin doctors.  This is the result.

SINGLETON, NSW —

New South Wales does not need another inquiry into its health system.  Problems are clearly evident without an inquiry and need immediate rectification.  It’s not like this is a new awakening for there are major problems facing people in need of medical care in the regions.  A talkfest is an excuse to do nothing in the interim.  And aren’t politicians good at stalling making decisions?

The Hunter New England Health District is notoriously problem-riddled institutionally ingrained.  Look within who runs HNEH.

Now the situation has arisen of at least four local general practitioners (GPs) have resigned from Singleton Hospital.

Read more of The Singleton Argus story by Louise Nichols:

Rural and regional health crisis comes to Singleton with local GPs resigning from hospital

DUBBO AND COBAR, WESTERN NSW — These are our hospitals “at work”. These are how “our hospitals work”.

This is what are supposed to be  H O S P I T A L S :   They can’t even keep a supply of fresh blood.  Clueless.  Stupidity runs the local health districts.  People employed beyond their capability and this is the result.  Are they still being paid to serve this substandard care up?

Western New South Wales Local Health District CEO Scott McLachlan – patients don’t want your apology.  It’s too late.  You do not listen.  People want properly functioning and well equipped hospitals.  Apart from churning out empty promises, what do you actually do, Scott?  Not much judging by yesterday’s evidence at the Rural Regional Remote Health Inquiry.

Read more of the ABC Western Plains report:

Only nine of 38 hospitals i the western region carry blood, NSW inquiry told

NEW SOUTH WALES — The NSW Parliament Legislative Council (Upper House) is conducting an inquiry into rural health failures and disasters in New South Wales.  It requires a judicial inquiry not a parliamentary one.

It was launched last August 2020.  Submissions deadline 11/12/20 then extended to 15/1/21.

703 submissions numbers have been allocated on the parliamentary website.  How many more submissions were received beyond 703 is unknown.

Before the inquiry hearings started today, the 703 submissions to the inquiry have been censored, redacted senseless, chunks removed, and retyped without consent of authors.

Anything that supposedly offends the committee has been obliterated.  Truth usually does offend because politicians don’t want to face it.

Does this committee of inquiry want to hear what is going on in rural health?

It’s frightened of the truth before it has started.

JORDAN, MIDDLE EAST — At least seven people died at a hospital in Jordan on Saturday 13 March 2021 after it ran out of oxygen, according to Jordanian news reports, prompting an outcry in the kingdom, a visit to the hospital by King Abdullah II and the resignations of the country’s health minister and the hospital’s director.

Officials said that all of the victims were being treated for the coronavirus and that they had died after an interruption of oxygen supply that lasted around an hour at a government hospital in Salt, northwest of Amman, the capital.

Many countries across the world, including Mexico, Nigeria and Egypt, have faced oxygen supply shortages that have driven up the virus death toll. In Mexico, prices for oxygen have spiked, sales of oxygen tanks have thrived on the black market, and criminal groups have stolen them from hospitals. In Egypt, a New York Times investigation found that at least three patients had died of oxygen deprivation in a hospital that was running out of it earlier this year.

READ MORE OF ELIAN PELTIER’S STORY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES:

At least 7 Covid-19 patients die in Jordan because of an oxygen shortage, a growing problem around the world.

CANBERRA — The Final Report into Aged Care Quality and Safety, released Monday 1st March 2021, has confirmed MEAG’s concerns raised in repeated correspondence to the respective federal ministers for some two decades.

MEAG is not shocked by the Royal Commission’s findings.  It is what it has reported and named the atrocious nursing homes.  As for the Aged Care so-called regulator, we could only laugh at their ineptitude.

The federal ministers for aged care ignored MEAG.  This is the proof they did not read a single letter from concerned constituents Australia-wide either.  Each and every minister ignored everything and everyone.  Now they’re supposedly surprised — not shamed — just surprised.  The Royal Commission was an excuse for the federal government to stall even further.  Always “looking into things” but always the other way.

Australia’s maltreatment of its elderly is shameful and a disgrace.

To every politician:  Hang your head in shame.  To the Ministers for Aged Care, you all need to quit.  To you the elderly are a nuisance.  Wait till it’s your mum and dad and see how you fare.  Good luck.