Moronic response to overstretched hospitals

What about paring down the army of health bureaucrats and using the money saved to hire more medical staff? Does anyone NOT already know about GPs? People don't go to GPs because it is generally dearer and not available after hours

The New South Wales State Government has launched an advertising campaign aimed at reducing the pressure placed on hospital emergency departments. The Government says the initiative has been designed in consultation with emergency department staff.

They hope the program will encourage people to seek treatment from their GP, for non-urgent medical conditions, so hospitals can give priority to people needing emergency care. They have cited figures which show an 8 per cent rise in emergency department admissions with 2.3 million people attending emergency department in the past year. Only 34 per cent of those attending believed they really needed hospital care.

The Government hopes the initiative will help people consider how serious their condition is, and make the right decision about where to find treatment.

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Bungling bank abets thieves

What happened to signature checking?? I'm glad that I have no accounts with ANZ. Note that the customer had to get newspaper publicity to get the bank to exhibit some decency. The bank should be prosecuted for negligence

They're incredibly brazen, quick and heartless - a two-woman team that has stolen more than $1 million from patients in Sydney's biggest hospitals, aided and abetted by banks. In most cases, the pair targets maternity wards, preying on women who have just given birth. After stealing their wallets, they use their victims' credit and key cards to empty their accounts, thanks to incredibly lax security by tellers at Australia's major banks. A police strike force has been set up to catch the thieves, who have robbed almost 200 people across Sydney in the past year. The robbers have struck at the Westmead, Nepean, Bankstown, Royal North Shore, Royal Women's, Sydney Adventist and Mater hospitals.

Detective Sergeant Roland Winter believes there are two separate two-woman teams involved in the scam. He said they worked fast, netting as much as $30,000 from a victim's accounts in the space of 45 minutes. The women have also begun to target gyms and school staff rooms.

Among their victims is Mary-Louise Lacey, who was robbed of $22,500 two days after giving birth to her son Angus at the Mater Hospital, North Sydney. When the mother of three left her hospital room briefly on January 17, the thieves struck immediately. Seventeen minutes later, they were at the ANZ Bank in North Sydney, posing as Ms Lacey. "If you go into a bank and say you've forgotten your PIN, if you can produce enough ID, you can change the PIN on the spot, which is what these women did,'' Ms Lacey said.

They handed the teller identification from Ms Lacey's wallet, including an unaltered driver's licence. Despite the photograph not matching, the teller allowed them to change the PIN on the keycard, which gave them access to Ms Lacey's five accounts. They then visited two other ANZ branches, filled in withdrawal slips and stole a total of $22,500.

The ordeal was made more distressing for MsLacey because it took her six weeks to get the money reimbursed. Instead of enjoying her new baby, she spent countless hours on the phone to the bank. "I was in a hospital bed and they told me I would have to come into the bank to verify my identity, yet they allowed two strangers to walk in and clear out my bank accounts in 45 minutes,'' she said.

Ms Lacey cancelled direct debits from the account but they continued for three months, resulting in overdrafts and bank fees of $500 that she said the bank had refused to waive. "It was a very stressful time and I would hate anyone else to have to go through it,'' she said. Ms Lacey warned new mothers to watch their valuables while in hospital. An ANZ spokesman told The Sunday Telegraph the bank would review the fees charged for the overdrafts.

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Queensland Health turns lawyers on its staff

This organization is never out of trouble. It is clearly totally out of control. It should be abolished and started again with none of the old administrative staff rehired

QUEENSLAND Health is spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars for law firms to fight complaints by hospital staff. State Government sources said high-powered barristers and solicitors were engaged in an attempt to get "intimidated and bullied" employees to back down. Some legal eagles cost up to $5000 a day to appear in courts and tribunals.

It was also revealed in Parliament last week that Queensland Health had spent more than $8 million on legal fees and settling claims made by staff and patients during the past two years. Another 274 claims were outstanding.

The department insider said staff who lodged complaints about minor matters, mainly related to pay and conditions, found themselves on the end of an expensive legal battle. Brisbane lawyer Susan Moriarty obtained documents under Freedom of Information that showed Queensland Health had paid almost $115,000 in legal fees in three recent cases. Ms Moriarty, who has represented several Royal Brisbane Hospital staff with claims or complaints, said Queensland Health was hiring private law firms to deal with complaints that should be dealt with by staff. "There are plaintive cries for more and more funding for hospitals, yet they have plenty of funding to go after their own employees," she said.

Leading law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth was paid $53,000 to represent Royal Brisbane Hospital Health Services District against a female hospital cleaner who was claiming $3500 in an impairment discrimination case. Ms Moriarty said the woman was seeking to cover the economic loss of losing weekend penalty shifts when she returned to work after surgery. After failed attempts at conciliation, the case was referred to the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, before settling confidentially.

Another leading law firm, Clayton Utz, was paid $44,000 to investigate several allegations by a junior nurse who claimed she had been bullied by Royal Brisbane Hospital supervisors. Ms Moriarty said the woman's union advised her to lodge a complaint after she was asked to do work she was not trained to do. "Instead of conducting an internal investigation, they initiated an external investigation conducted by a private law firm," Ms Moriarty said. The six-week investigation ran to 18 months. Queensland Health eventually sacked the nurse.

In the third case, a Royal Brisbane Hospital cleaner, who had studied medicine overseas and had worked as a theatre wardsman interstate, claimed race and age discrimination after his applications for permanent theatre positions were rejected. Queensland Health has paid Corrs Chambers Westgarth $18,000 so far, with the matter still to be heard in the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal. "The big law firms have become nothing other than de facto human resources advisers to Queensland Health, at about $400 an hour," Ms Moriarty said.

Opposition health spokesman John-Paul Langbroek said he was aware of cases where Queensland Health had become heavy-handed with its own staff. "It's Big Brother . . . a lot of issues could be resolved by normal staff negotiations and relationships," he said.

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More crooked cops in Victoria

It must be getting hard to find any honest ones

A PROBE into possible criminal behaviour at a high level of Victoria Police has intensified with three reviews started. And in a radical bid to fix the corrupt culture, the force is trying to move part of the police IT section linked to irregular multi-million dollar blow-outs. Sources told the Sunday Herald Sun an internal corruption probe by the Ethical Standard Department was scrutinising all links to a corrupt senior police manager. The manager, who stepped down while under investigation, was recently convicted of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

Senior sources said the corruption probe - which has been running for six months - could soon net more scalps. Victoria Police did not rule out further criminal charges.

A review of top management was in progress while Business Information Technology Services was under examination. Victoria Police was trying to separate and move the procurement division of BITS into a different part of the Flinders St headquarters. The move came after a police contract with IBM blew out by $85 million.

A Sunday Herald Sun investigation also found:

SOME police staff who were whistleblowers and informants in recent probes and audits felt victimised by colleagues and management.

TWO senior managerial positions for BITS section had recently been advertised.

THE restructure moves were rubbing staff the wrong way, with a potential industrial showdown looming.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Joanne Hammond confirmed an internal audit had identified "a range of matters around process". "The audit team is currently working with BITS management to rectify these issues," she said. In relation to criminal charges of police employees, Ms Hammond said the investigation was ongoing and would not comment further.

Victoria Police has been involved in scandals about IT contracts, computer fraud and database breaches. One senior manager was discovered with child porn links on his laptop, scores of mobile phones and other items were missing and financial record keeping was highly irregular. Workers with the police's technology partner IBM were also found with keys and security passes for police headquarters up to year after they left the company. Kickbacks to police employees from suppliers and embezzlement were also being investigated.

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