Doctors working across Sydney’s west have sounded the alarm to stop a situation they fear could become a medical crisis.
Lifesaving treatment for patients suffering kidney failure is now having to be rationed, after what specialists say is years of underinvestment in resources.
Doctors from some of Sydney’s biggest hospitals are now lifting the lid on what they say is an escalating crisis.
“We are not giving adequate treatment to our patients,” Nepean Hospital chair of medical staff Dr James Mallows told 9News.
“That’s causing harm, it’s causing greater morbidity and mortality.”
About 45 doctors and specialists from western Sydney, south-western Sydney and Nepean/Blue Mountains local health districts banding together, calling on NSW Health for urgent attention towards underresourced renal and dialysis services.
They warn they’re now rationing “life-sustaining” treatment for patients with kidney failure.
“We are now providing hemodialysis treatments at levels seen in the developing world,” a co-signed letter states.
“Soon we may be forced to deny these life-sustaining treatments… or to choose patients who can stay alive on hemodialysis while others die.
“We are not prepared to do this.”
“We have now reached a critical point – we are now at an emergency point a place we haven’t been before,” Shadow Health Minister Kellie Sloane said.
Doctors working across the three health districts say since late May 127 dialysis patients had their treatment reduced to twice-weekly, instead of the standard three times a week.
About 52 patients began receiving shorter than recommended treatments while more than 92 patients have had to travel more than an hour away just to keep them alive.
“They’re fragile, they’re vulnerable, they’re really sick…and you know if they just had more dialysis we might not see them as often,” Dr Mallows said.
According to the National Dialysis and Transplant Registry, the three local health districts have the highest numbers and growth rate of dialysis patients in the country.
Each year 300 more people will rely on the lifesaving treatment, that’s seemingly in short supply.
“We take this very seriously and there is a considerable amount of work going on to invest and plan and build on the dialysis and more broadly renal services across Western Sydney and in fact the state,” Deputy Secretary Minister of Health Deborah Willcox said.
