Frustrated staff claim mentally ill patients were removed from view as management quickly ‘cleaned up’ a hospital when Dominic Perrottet paid a surprise visit
Sydney hospital tried to ‘clean up’ overcrowded wards by hiding the mentally ill
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet made surprising appearance in Westmead
Staff sent an urgent email to nearby Cumberland Hospital requesting help
Hospital sources claim workers were told to move mentally ill out of sight
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A Sydney hospital tried to ‘clean up’ its crowded corridors by hiding mentally ill patients during a surprise appearance by the NSW Premier.
Dominic Perrottet arrived at Westmead Hospital on Tuesday afternoon to speak to staff – prompting management to make last minute arrangements to make “beautiful things” before making a public speech.
In an internal hospital email, a staff member asked a licensed nurse from Cumberland Hospital to supervise a number of psychiatric patients, the Daily Telegram reported.
The nurse would be used specifically to ‘move the patients’.
A Sydney hospital tried to ‘clean up’ its crowded corridors by hiding mentally ill patients during a surprise appearance by NSW Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet on Tuesday
“They (the hospital) did some clearing up beforehand… Patients are being treated in the hallways and on the floor,” a source told the publication.
“One of the big areas where that’s happening is mental health admissions that haven’t been taken to Cumberland Hospital.”
The source claims senior staff quickly told workers to get mentally ill patients out of the emergency department after Perrottet made his impromptu act.
The area is reportedly constantly packed with mentally ill patients awaiting transfer to nearby facilities, including Cumberland, with some forced to sleep on the floor.
Westmead management was forced to make last minute arrangements to create ‘beautiful things’ by moving mentally ill patients out of crowded corridors – according to a hospital source
A Westmead employee said they were briefed on the Prime Minister’s arrival before he showed up, but by that stage the mentally ill patients had been removed from the area.
“It seems that, to beautiful things, they were (moved),” they said,
“If this was the solution, I don’t know why it hasn’t been used before.”
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association confirmed that a letter had been sent from Westmead to Cumberland requesting a nurse to assist in transferring patients
Westmead’s internal email to Cumberland was confirmed by Nick Howson, a member of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association.
“We were asked if we could provide a nurse with mental health training to go to the emergency room … to manage the large number of psychiatric patients in Westmead,” he said.
“They were specifically going to move the patients…”
A spokesman for the Western Sydney Local Health District said the move is part of the ‘daily patient flow’ and that ‘no patients were moved or treated differently before or during the visit’.