A whole unit of doctors in one of the busiest hospitals in Sydney has withdrawn their resignation after they have threatened en masse.
Ten interventional radiologists in the Westmead Hospital offered their resignation in June, stating concern about outdated equipment, lack of personnel and wages.
Interventional radiologists are crucial doctors who perform a wide range of procedures and are essential for important and trauma operations and high-quality obstetric care.
The back track comes after the doctors have met medical managers this week. ((ABC News: Patrick Thomas))
The Western Sydney unit also sees patients in the Blacktown Hospital, but has only two special angiography machines, which are designed to take pictures of blood vessels.
Both machines are more than 15 years old and one of them has been demolished.
The doctors met the new Chief Executive of the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD), Amanda Larkin and executive director of Operations Alison Derrett on Monday, who promised better staff levels, new equipment and improved wage conditions.
The resignation would come into effect on Tuesday. ((Four corners: Nick Wiggins))
“Nobody wanted to stop, we just wanted equipment and resources to do the work well and safe,” said a doctor who spoke with the ABC on condition of anonymity.
“We were at a point where they were going to transport patients to other hospitals.“
Minister of Health calls for ‘reset in culture’
Minister of Health Ryan Park blamed the gap between doctors and medical managers of a “communication output”.
“I don’t accept that it should have come to this stage,” he said.
“I believe there has been a breakdown in communication and I believe there should be a reset in culture.”
In a statement, a WSLHD spokesperson said that interventional radiology services in Westmead remain fully staffed and operational.
Minister of Health Ryan Park said that “there had been a breakdown in communication”. ((ABC News: Patrick Thomas))
It said that discussions with interventional radiologists had been positive and were going.
VICE chairman of the Westmead Medical Staff Council Jenny King said that doctors were worried that it was necessary in the media to achieve a result.
“We don’t want to be ignored,” she said.
“We know that there are no endless means … but we want to see some effort and some faith in the things we tell people.”
Dr. Jenny King said she was worried about the future of the public health system. ((ABC News))
The interventional radiologists said that they will still consider in August if there was no progress.
“If we lose all our senior clinicians, you can’t just replace them with an old doctor, there is so much experience in it,” said Dr. King.
“I am just worried about the future of the public health system.“
Waiting times are being investigated
The hospital started to revise after the staff had expressed concern about long waiting times for routine scans that detect cancer.
Last week, Mr Park apologized at Joshua Maxwell of the Westmead Hospital after waiting for 210 days for an open heart surgery that had to be done within 90 days.
According to figures from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI), there were more than 8,587 patients waiting longer than clinically recommended for surgery in the first quarter of 2025.
That is an increase of 151 percent at the same time last year, when there were 3,417 patients who waited longer than should.
Mr Park said the ABC that since the BHI figures have been released, the overdue surgery list had been reduced to 5,400 in May.
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