Nurses flag overall patient and healthcare worker safety concerns after loss of registrars

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) withdrew the hospital's accreditation for medical registrar training on February 3, citing concerns about supervision and workloads.

Late on February 6, the Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) confirmed it had found locum doctors to fill the void.

However, this is only on an interim basis, and the chief executive officer, Mark Spittal, has since admitted that the hospital is "not entirely out of the woods".

READ MORE: Hospital not out of the woods yet after being 'completely blindsided'

The Bathurst Base Hospital branch of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) also holds concerns moving forward.

Secretary of the branch, James Adams, said overall patient and healthcare worker safety "can be compromised" without training medical registers performing their role in the hospital.

"Medical registrars cover inpatient's day to day activities, as well as ED (emergency department) reviews for admission or when critically unwell patients, such as stroke [patients], need a retrieval," he said.

"A big concern for nurses and midwives is the escalation of care and clinical reviews.

"If there's no registrar, a junior medical officer is the only point of call directly involved until a consultant arrives, if they arrive, as they are often not on site."

He said the potential impacts of the absence of registrars include a lack of regular patient reviews, decreased patient flow through the hospital due to a backlog of work placed on junior medical officers, and increased time spent in the ED due to delays in admission or discharge review.

Having different roles within the hospital filled is also important for new nurses in the hospital.

"With a prominent early-career nursing workforce, it's vital the medical structure is sufficient to support developing nurses and aid in the overall treatments and plans for Bathurst patients," Mr Adams said.

The concerns cited by the RACP add to the growing list of complaints about Bathurst Base Hospital in recent years.

In 2022 alone, Bathurst nurses and midwives participated in multiple statewide strikes, airing their frustrations about staffing shortages and inadequate nurse-to-patient ratios, which have led to fatigue and safety concerns.

Similar concerns about the hospital as a whole have been raised by the Bathurst Health Services Action Group since its formation in May, 2019.

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