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Orthopaedic patients at the new South East Regional Hospital in Bega are in the dark about when they will be operated on, after surgeons walked away in support of their colleague whose contract has not been renewed.
After several years at the hospital, head orthopaedic surgeon Dr Chris Phoon's contract came to an end this week, and was not renewed.
He said one the catalysts for the upheaval was due to an argument over his request to use bolt cutters he had bought from a hardware store on a patient.
The patient, David Rosseland, had broken his leg and had a large steel pin put through his ankle to stabilise it, but when it came to remove the pin, the hospital's bolt cutters were found to be broken.
So to save the cost of transferring Mr Rosseland to Canberra, Dr Phoon bought some bolt cutters and asked for them to be sterilised — which he said was acceptable and safe.
But Dr Phoon said that was not the first time he had butted heads with the administrators.
"[They] need to let the specialists and the professionals who work in the hospital to just do their job," he said.
Dr Phoon took the extraordinary step of posting his latest performance review online, to show that he had been highly regarded.
He said the recently announced independent inquiry into the decision at the South East Regional Hospital should delve deeper than just the recent case of the bolt cutters.
"There has been approximately one third of the local senior staff at the hospital, for numerous reasons over the last 12 months, they no longer have contracts at this hospital," Dr Phoon said.
"[And] a brand new hospital that has less doctors than the old hospital."
One surgeon left standing
When Dr Matthew Nott, another surgeon at the hospital, found out Dr Phoon's contract was not being renewed, he cancelled his orthopaedic surgery list for March.
He said he would not be going back unless Dr Phoon was reinstated.
"The way I'm feeling right at the moment, I don't think I can work with this current administration," Dr Nott said.
Which then left a reluctant Dr Krishnankutty Rajesh as the only orthopaedic surgeon on duty at the hospital — while getting ready to go on pre-arranged leave.
"The problem obviously is the patient is actually in their surgery waiting to have the surgery now and I am stuck, because I really don't want to do the surgery and leave," Dr Rajesh said.
"I don't know if there is any cover, nothing has been said to me."
'No word from the hospital'
Laurel Lloyd Jones is one of the 480 patients waiting for orthopaedic surgery at the hospital.
She said so far she had been given no advice from the hospital, apart from advising her to begin injecting herself with a pre-surgery drug.
"Now I'm not prepared to start those injections, because I know for sure it won't be happening by the sound of things," she said.
It has been more than a week since the dispute spilled into the public domain and today NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard addressed the issue.
"I've asked them to go away, talk collaboratively and carefully and sensibly with the doctors," he said.
The Southern NSW Local Health District has said that a locum would be available to perform orthopaedic surgery at the new hospital by the middle of next week.
Until then patients due for joint replacement surgery have been told they can travel four hours away to Goulburn.
Topics: doctors-and-medical-professionals, health, bega-2550, nsw, australia