Author: Jayden

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A southwestern Sydney hospital proposed to offer up vacant wards to film companies for TV productions, advertisements and movies in a bid to make money — even as damning statistics reveal a blowout in waiting times for patients.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that South Western Sydney Local Health District lodged a “proposed tender” for “vacant/unused” wards at Campbelltown Hospital to be used as a location for production companies to carry out filming.

“Campbelltown Hospital has vacant/unused wards that can be used for filming for TV/ads/movies and other similar such mediums,” the proposed tender stated.

The proposed tender offered up unused space to “companies/organisations that may be interested in using this space to film”.

The plan was scuttled only after The Telegraph discovered the proposal and challenged the idea. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told the local health district to pull the proposed tender after inquiries from this newspaper.

The plan was scuttled only after The Telegraph discovered the proposal and challenged the idea. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told the local health district to pull the proposed tender after inquiries from this newspaper.

Campbelltown Hospital had planned to hire out unused wards to film crews, despite patient wait times increasing. Picture: Toby Zerna

The attempt at making money from unused wards came despite Campbelltown Hospital going backwards in the latest hospital scorecard.

In April to June, only 42 per cent of the most urgent emergency department patients had their treatment started on time.

On average, it took five hours for patients to leave the hospital after arriving. It took almost 14 hours for the bottom 10 per cent of patients to leave.

It also took 20 minutes, on average, for patients to be transferred from an ambulance into the hospital’s care.

That blew out to one hour and 19 minutes for the bottom 10 per cent of patients.

The Bureau of Health Information Data revealed that Campbelltown Hospital is performing worse on the time it took to see patients compared to the same time last year.

Statewide, NSW has lost 365 hospital beds since 2015-16, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.

In an attempt to avoid a public-relations nightmare and cover its tracks, the health district pulled the advertisement from the government’s tender website after The Telegraph’s inquiries led to Mr Hazzard becoming involved in the matter.

Popular hospital TV drama Grey’s Anatomy. Picture: ABC

Labor Leader Chris Minns called the attempt to rent out the hospital for filming as “outrageous”.

“This isn’t Grey‘s Anatomy, it’s a real hospital with sick people,” he said.

“Because of chronic mismanagement and underfunding, these empty wards are now being used as movie sets, not filled with patients.

“Dominic Perrottet should be focused on fixing the hospital, not filming it.”

In a statement, South West Sydney Local Health District said the filming locations that had been considered for offer could not be used to treat patients, following a $766 million refurbishment of the hospital.

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Hospital workers and paramedics are calling for a full-scale royal commission into the NSW health budget, with a shock campaign accusing specialist doctors of pocketing money while patients wait on the phone and ordinary frontline workers cop pay cuts.

The unprecedented move will seek to uncover why health spending has consistently increased by more than double the rate of inflation but the workforce is so stretched, with one insider saying it was “on the verge of mass resignation”.

At the core of the campaign is a complaint that specialist doctors are pocketing more money than ever, while ordinary frontline workers like ambulance officers, nurses and hospital cleaners are going backwards.

The hard-hitting ads depict a man appearing to suffer a heart attack while waiting for an ambulance, and a sick child waiting for treatment while a specialist literally pockets a wad of cash and drives off in a fancy car.

At around $33 billion a year, health spending comprises almost a third of the entire NSW budget.

A still from the campaign calling for a royal commission into health spending in NSW.

If the campaign is successful, it is believed it would be the first ever royal commission into the biggest area of state government spending.

The powerful Health Services Union will kickstart the campaign with an advertising blitz on Sunday night, and will maintain the pressure with television, outdoor, radio and digital ads for the four months until the March 26 state election.

According to data compiled by the HSU, ambulance wait times are the second-worst in the country, while regional NSW patients wait six months for an appointment with a specialist.

In the decade to March 2020 the number of vacancies in the NSW health sector doubled from around 3000 to 6000, yet by July 2022 they nearly doubled again to almost 12,000 vacancies.

The union said increases in health funding were clearly not going to paramedics, nurses and other vital workers.

“Each year the (Health) Minister announces a record health spend yet people still cop unacceptable wait times for ambulances and specialists,” HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes told The Daily Telegraph.

The Health Services Union campaign will kick off with an advertising blitz on Sunday night.

“We know this money is not going to paramedics, therapists, radiologists, junior medical officers and cleaners. Their incomes are going backwards.

“Only a full royal ­commission with the power to discover documents and compel witnesses will show us where and how the health budget is being spent.”

The veteran union leader explicitly took aim at doctors for increasing their fees while other healthcare workers have had their salaries effectively cut.

Mr Hayes also said the hospital system was picking up the burden of shortcomings in the aged care sector, which was recently the subject of its own royal commission.

“In some parts of NSW, close to one in 10 hospital beds are taken by people who should be in aged care,” he said.