Monthly media digest: June/July 2025

Northern Beaches hospital safety concerns

Whistleblowers say warnings about patient safety at Northern Beaches Hospital in NSW have been ignored according to an ABC 7.30 report on 9 June. 

The report said an anonymous anaesthetist claimed in a confidential submission to  a NSW parliamentary inquiry that staffing levels in their department were very unsafe and that on one occasion "we had absolutely zero capacity to deal with any emergency at all during a normal weekday".

He warned that after hours "there is no capacity for a third patient, whether it be for an emergency caesarean or an epidural for a woman in labour".

Trainee supervision was also falling far below national standards, according to the submission. 

He wrote that anaesthetist trainees were supervised only four per cent of the time instead of ANZCA's recommended 80 per cent, or a bare minimum of 50 per cent supervision.

Concerns over operation outsourcing

ANZCA New Zealand National Committee chair Dr Graham Roper was interviewed by Radio New Zealand and Newstalk ZB following an ANZCA media release expressing concerns over Health NZ outsourcing elective procedures to private hospitals.

The release was also included in reporting by New Zealand Doctor online, MSN New Zealand, the Radio New Zealand website, Scoop, and the Otago Daily Times.