Dr MARJORIE O'NEILL (Coogee) (17:01:03): I bring to the attention of the House the continuing crisis of paediatric cardiac surgery at the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick and the incompetence of the Minister for Health in his handling of this long‑running issue. This is not the first time I have brought this critical issue to the attention of this House and to the Minister. Fourteen months ago I told the House the harrowing story of Cooper Lowe, who was only 10 days old when he was transferred to the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick with undiagnosed myocarditis. Soon after arriving, Cooper went into cardiac arrest and required CPR for 26 minutes. Without the extraordinary measures then taken by the cardiac surgical team present at the hospital, Cooper would not have survived.
Since the Sydney Children's Hospital Network was formed, the cardiac surgery practice at the Sydney Children's Hospital has been slowly undermined and progressively underfunded. Whether by design or apathetic administration, a gradual shift in allocation has seen all elective cardiac procedures removed from the Randwick hospital and passed to the Westmead campus—a pattern that the doctors of the Sydney Children's Hospital Randwick have been fighting against for years. The Sydney Children's Hospital is a tertiary paediatric referral hospital. This hospital, one of four within the Randwick health precinct, provides a complex and comprehensive range of services in paediatric and adolescent medicine and surgery, treating children with conditions including cancer, trauma, HIV/AIDS, congenital abnormalities, disabilities, heart disease and respiratory disorders.
The removal of an essential surgical specialty like cardiac surgery puts the status of this wonderful institution at significant risk. Whether it is your child, your niece, your nephew or the child of a friend, paediatric cardiac services at the Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick are crucial in providing world-class health care for our most seriously ill kids. The full removal of these services could cost lives. In conversation with doctors from the Randwick Hospital, I have heard stories about transfer times between the Randwick and Westmead hospitals of over 12 hours and about the removal of a newborn child from its mother, who is receiving treatment at the adjacent Royal Women's hospital in Randwick, in order for the child to receive treatment in Westmead. It is an unthinkable scenario for mother and child as well as a father who is torn between visiting hospitals across the city.
The Minister has been aware of this issue for years and has routinely refused to take a position, allowing dysfunctionality to endure. After perennially dodging responsibility, the Minister revealed that the recommendations of the Henry Review into Paediatric Services in New South Wales would provide the ultimate direction for paediatric cardiac services. In what seemed to be the end of this enduring crisis, on 24 January the health Minister announced that cardiac surgery would be returned to the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, The clear directive of the Henry review being that cardiac services needed to be run in parallel at the Sydney Children's Hospital as well as at the Children's Hospital Westmead. That directive was accepted and announced by the Minister for Health. However, eight months since the review's release and the Minister's public commitment to return cardiac surgery to the Sydney Children's Hospital, not a single surgery has been completed or even scheduled. Doctors from the hospital now find themselves having to again call on the Minister to deliver the promised return of full cardiac services to the hospital as concerns grow for the safety of seriously ill children and for the future of the hospital.
When the decision was made in January it was long overdue. Since then the Minister has again sat on his hands for eight months and done nothing to speed up the process. The Minister has shirked any responsibility to follow through with this commitment and instead has created more bureaucratic hoops to be jumped through. I am reliably advised that the new committee that was formed to implement the Minister's January directive appears to have been filled with committee members who are open and vocal about their opposition to the Minister's decision to restore cardiac surgery at Randwick. To frustrate the situation further, the terms of reference for the committee's operation do not include the words that the Minister used in his January announcement, which allows for clouding of the committee's clear goals.
It is simply not good enough for the Minister to renege on his commitment. The Minister is leading a dysfunctional process. Every day it continues the lives of seriously ill children are put at risk. Children in our community and across New South Wales deserve the best health services possible, not delays and indecision from the Liberals-National Government. The fact that this issue has still not been fixed is a disgrace and shows a complete failure of leadership on behalf of the health Minister. The staff at this wonderful hospital deserve better. The community that has fought for this hospital deserves better. Sick kids in New South Wales deserve much, much better. I call on the Minister to fulfil his responsibilities as Minister and follow through with a public commitment to restore cardiac surgery to the Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick.
