THE doctors behind a draft letter condemning the management of John Hunter Hospital and its "dangerously inadequate" resourcing will put their concerns to a vote, saying it is "ethically wrong" to stay silent.
The letter - written by clinicians in a bid to be heard by the board of Hunter New England Health - will be distributed to almost 500 doctors on the hospital's Medical Staff Council from Friday.
It calls for a vote of no confidence in the current chief executive, Michael DiRienzo, while outlining "grossly inadequate" bed and critical care capacity that has led to compromised care for the community.
So far, 45 staff specialists and visiting medical officers at the hospital have signed the draft letter - prior to it being widely distributed to members of the Medical Staff Council.
One of the letter's signatories, who is contractually not permitted to speak to the media, said the letter was leaked to politicians and media before they'd had a chance to put it to a vote to gauge overall support among the hospital's medical staff.
It was being used as a "political football", when their intention was to highlight a hospital system that had reached "crisis point," and to try to make things "better".
"The letter was leaked with just 12 signatures... I mean, 12 out of 500 has portrayed us as just a bunch of grumpy clinicians with no real, good, point," the doctor said. "But in fact, there are 45 of us already, and we are about to take it to a vote.
"Our intention now is to release it to all of the relevant specialties to have a hidden ballot. So there will be a result by Monday with an appropriate denominator of people who've actually seen the letter and have voted on it - as opposed to just the people who've been willing to put their name in lights."
The doctor said every day they were forced to make decisions that "seriously compromise" patient care. They put these concerns into words to help them gauge how many other clinicians had lost confidence in the current management.
"We're fairly powerless as a group of clinicians," the doctor said. "We felt that if we had the consensus of all of the specialists, or if there was a majority, then at least we can demonstrate to the board that there is not much support from below."
In a statement, Mr DiRienzo said he regularly engaged with a "number" of senior clinicians at the hospital, and had "not been made aware of these concerns".
"While this feedback is important, it is not an accurate representation of the 479 doctors who make up our medical workforce," he said. "I acknowledge the last two years have been incredibly challenging for all health staff across the state."
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