McGinty's Emergency Department Mess

Running Amok in Emergency

Self-appointed Emperor Jim McGinty reminds the Desert Rat of the scene from the Wizard of Oz when the great curtains in the Emerald City are finally pulled back.

Dorothy and her friends find ..... nothing. Just a small, anxious figure who had until then been able to project a big, confident illusion.

Like many, this powerful figure once had the Desert Rat's respect. He had the power to make things happen; to do good things. As he took control of the ALP a different picture gradually emerged - the political titan, and skilled strategist became a ruthless and surprisingly incompetent minister. A person who was not a leader, but one of the Stalinist Left who controls using the weapon of fear - a person whose larger than life impression has shrunken and wasted over the last three years.

Was it the cancer of power and insecurity?

Wallowing in a tsnami of mining generated taxes and revenue which allowed expensive announcements, helped disguise the many failures of McGinty's dysfunctional oversight of the Health Department.

Those failure are now on display everywhere. Today's The West Australian carries a report that Emergency Department (ED) doctors at our public hospitals are considering industrial action.

Not surprising to the Desert Rat, staff are leaving the public health system because they are not appreciated. Their motivation to do the extra work needed has been exhausted and destroyed. They don't feel appreciated.

Jim McGinty has consistently and cynically left the Emergency Departments understaffed, as shown by this table compiled from recent answers to questions in State Parliament

Hospital	Budgeted FTE's	Actual FTE's	FTE's Resigned
Royal Perth	122	94	22
Sir Charles Gairdner	114	98	15
Fremantle	103	92	16

They are understaffed by about 25%. No wonder they can't cope and resignations churn the system requiring existing staff to train and train new staff; time that could be better spent doing their job.

SCGH is understaffed by 16 registered nurses; RPH is understaffed by 28 registered nurses and Fremantle by 11 registered nurses. They are all budgeted positions. Little wonder the resignations levels are so high.

Staff that front each day are under enormous pressure. They are assaulted, insulted and unappreciated by the impersonal style of management that Jim McGinty has fostered in the Health Department.

No amount of new legislation or new hospitals in the Kimberley or elsewhere will fix the people management problem in the Health Department. Jenny Pickworth described the fear and intimidation felt by senior management in the Health Department.

McGinty's costly penchant for centralising everything in health has taken management further away from the staff. When you fail to motivate and appreciate staff they soon lose interest. Many hospitals cannot get staff to do after-hours call work in emergencies.

Some obstetrics hospitals are operating dangerously - without staff available for emergency call-outs. No wonder midwives burn-out and retire early.

McGinty's answer to stop the resignations and ease the workload on ED's was to ramp ambulances which was highlighted in this earlier post. Up to a dozen ambulance can be ramped at ED's. All of these ED's are grossly understaffed and well below their budgeted staff numbers.

It is a pity some of the $90 million McGinty has wasted on the Corruption and Crime Commission has not found its way in filling the budgeted vacancies and properly remunerating Emergency Department staff.

The Chaos Theory may work well in physics but McGinty hasn't worked out that it has little application to Health.