‘Not Grey’s Anatomy’: Wards-for-hire plan slammed (Friday 2nd Dec – Daily Telegraph)
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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.