Royal North Shore Hospital

The Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) is a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, located in St Leonards. It serves as a teaching hospital for Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney and has approximately 700 beds. It is the referral hospital for Northern Sydney. Its primary referral area accommodates 5.7% of the Australian population or 17% of the NSW population.
Introduction.
The Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) is a leading tertiary teaching hospital of The University of Sydney, University of Technology and Australian Catholic University. It is also a major Trauma Centre which provides specialised services in the areas of severe burns, neonatal intensive care, spinal cord injury and interventional radiology. The Kolling Institute of Medical Research is a health and medical research centre with a focus on research training.
History.
It began as a cottage hospital located in Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest. The foundation stone was laid by Sir Henry Parkes, 18 June 1887. The hospital was opened with accommodation for fourteen patients, with the requisite office and rooms for the medical and nursing staff. Medical staff numbered four honorary doctors and nursing staff numbered five. The site of the original hospital was bounded by Willoughby Rd., Albany and Holterman Streets and Zig Zag Lane. The old site is now a busy part of the commercial centre of Crows Nest. In 1902, it opened on its current site at St Leonards, with 48 beds available for patients. New departments and wards were added over the next fifty years, reflecting the increasing diversity and professionalisation of health care.
Between 1935 and 1940, polio treatment pioneer Sister Kenny Kenny travelled extensively throughout Australia helping to set up clinics. In the mid-thirties, she set up one of her pioneering clinics at RNSH. In 1940, the New South Wales government sent Kenny to America to present her clinical method for treating polio victims to American doctors. Doctors in Minnesota were with her work and convinced her to stay. Her treatments, which revolutionised the care of polio, caused as much controversy in the United States, as they had in Australia. Royal North Shore became a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney in 1947. Currently, the RNSH is a 600-bed hospital situated in St Leonards on Sydney's lower North Shore about 6 km from Sydney's Central Business District, surrounded by suburbs with some of the most stunning harbour views of Sydney. RNSH provides care to the local community, the Northern Sydney Health area (population: 777,000), New South Wales and also to the Pacific Island nations.
In 2008 new facilities were procured under a PPP contract. The selected bidder, InfraShore, includes ABN AMRO, construction company Thiess and service providers Thiess Services, ISS Facility Services and Wilson Parking. The works were carried out by Thiess and completed in 2011.
Current Services.
There is currently 5,000 staff working at RNSH.
Notable incidents.
Following the case of patient Jana Horska, who suffered a miscarriage in the hospital's toilet as a result of lack of available beds and staff, the State Government established the Joint Select Committee on the Royal North Shore Hospital in the New South Wales Parliament on 23 October 2007, chaired by Christian Democrats leader Fred Nile MLC. The committee was formally established on 23 October 2007, and tabled its report on 20 December 2007. The report made 45 recommendations.
In early 2008, a Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals was commissioned. This comprehensive and ground breaking commission became known as The Garling Report. It reported in November 2008. The NSW State Government responded in March 2009. It found a "prevalent" problem associated with the care of the deteriorating patient in NSW public hospitals. As a result, a statewide system of monitoring vital signs to detect deteriorating patients was introduced. This system includes red and yellow "Between the Flags" colour-coded observation charts for recording a person's vital signs, allowing for easy visual recognition of deterioration. Observation charts have been developed for Adult, Paediatric, Maternity and Emergency patients. By 2012 it had been implemented in every public hospital in NSW.
In August 2015, a patient of the outpatient diabetes clinic attended Royal North Shore Hospital for a routine appointment at 9:30am, the patient failed to present to the clinical staff and was subsequently listed as a "no-show" to his appointment. His spouse later concerned that partner had not returned from his appointment contacted Royal North Shore Hospital who advised that her partner did not attend his scheduled appointment. It was not until 6:30am the following day that a cleaner located the man in a public toilet within the hospital premises. It was found that the patient suffered a stroke.
In August 2016, the Royal North Shore Hospital came under fire when it was revealed that doctors at the hospital were issuing restricted antibiotics to tens of thousands of patients, without seeking approval. Northern Sydney Local Health District's system through which approval to prescribe the powerful antibiotics is sought, called eASY, had not been used to generate any of these prescriptions. Use of the eASY system, designed to combat the spread of superbugs, had fallen to just 35% in May 2016.
A foetus was incorrectly cremated in an incident in 2015 that resulted in the parents being unable to bury their child as per their wishes. The admission came after state budget estimates exposed a separate body swap at RNSH, in which the daughter of a deceased patient found that staff had incorrectly tagged her remains.