WHEN it comes to public hospital waiting lists, everyone has a story.
Here in the Hunter, clinicians and hospital staff work hard to deliver timely patient care. They have our respect and gratitude.
Routinely, more surgeries are completed in this district than anywhere else in the state.
What we also know is that the system struggles to meet targets for planned surgery, here and throughout the state, as well as nationally.
For many people who are in chronic pain and waiting in line to have an operation at a public hospital, delays in surgery can be devastating.
Our pages and website regularly carry the stories of individuals waiting on a knee or hip replacement, and the impact it has on their lives.
An ongoing inquiry into public health care funding is taking place in an effort to get to the bottom of this, and other issues which lead to inequitable access to health care, particularly in rural and regional NSW.
Meanwhile, data obtained via freedom of information legislation reveals the number of surgeries postponed or cancelled at Hunter hospitals rose by up to 160 per cent in the four years to the end of 2022.
It was at that time, October 2022, that some of our most senior clinicians went public with their concerns.
In an extraordinary move, they banded together, brought in their union, and told us that in order to meet targets, they were being badgered on a regular basis to fudge the books.
Not in a whimsical, insignificant way, but in a way that hampered their ability to deliver patient care, crushed morale, and created a culture of fear.
And in a way which prevented necessary scrutiny of what they described in a letter to management as "inadequate bed capacity, inadequate critical care capacity, and inadequate urgent theatre access''.
"Every day, because of these shortages, we are forced to make decisions that seriously compromise both immediate clinical care and longer health outcomes," they said in an open letter to management.
They went on the record to tell us about delays in surgery for conditions like muscle invasive bladder cancer for which, when the treatment window closes, tumours can become inoperable.
On some days it was a matter of working out which of the "least urgent cancer surgeries" had to be cancelled.
We sat up and took notice, and ostensibly, so did the state government.
NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce promised an independent review by an external consultant.
Ernst and Young were engaged, and doctors have since been presented with key points from the work those consultants undertook.
Since then, there have been significant changes to the executive leadership team at the John Hunter Hospital, and a number of strategies put in place to address the issues doctors raised.
What we are not being told is how it came to pass that doctors were routinely being asked to re-classify the urgency of patients to meet arguably arbitrary key performance indicators set by the Ministry of Health in the first place.
How did it get so bad that those doctors came out of their shell, ignoring the gag-orders which usually guarantee their silence, and open otherwise closed doors, to go public?
Does it still go on?
In refusing to release the report which flowed from that investigation, the government is saying you don't have the right to know.
Perhaps the thinking is that if enough time passes, and enough obstacles are put in the way of it, the truth does not have to come out.
The idea that that report, at a cost of (what to taxpayers, we don't yet know, but the question's been asked) is still in draft, beggars belief.
The idea that it has been hidden is a flagrant betrayal of the pillars of democracy - transparency and accountability.
This is not a witch hunt. This is about drawing a line in the sand, and reassuring the public that the issue was thoroughly investigated.
And that whatever loopholes existed then to allow bean counters to mess with waitlists by pressuring doctors to make decisions based on anything other than clinical care, have since been closed.
That steps have been taken and measures put in place to ensure that, any delays in planned surgeries occur for the right reasons - not to tick boxes, or meet KPIs.
Transparency and accountability are pillars of a functioning democracy, along with principles of open justice, and you do have the right to know.
The public's right to know should not fall by the wayside to cover up the actions of bureaucrats paid by them to serve the community.
Happy International Access to Information Day.
