SYDNEY—The NSW health watchdog has been forced to put on more staff after being inundated with complaints about patient treatment in the past two months.
The Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) today told a public hearing at NSW Parliament House that recent highly publicised cases of patient mistreatment had prompted a flood of other complaints.
HCCC commissioner Kieran Pehm could not say exactly how many complaints had been received, but said it was a "substantial" amount and had prompted the employment of three temporary staff.
He said many of the complaints had followed publicity surrounding the investigation of malpractice allegations against former doctor Graeme Reeves - dubbed the Butcher of Bega.
"A lot of people are reminded about the poor health care they may have received," Mr Pehm told the hearing.
"And also the Garling commission of inquiry ... it has also generated a lot of publicity."
Peter Garling SC is currently conducting a special commission of inquiry into acute patient care within the state's public health system.
It was established following the scathing findings of a NSW coroner's investigation into the death of 16-year-old Vanessa Anderson.
Vanessa died two days after she was admitted to Royal North Shore Hospital with a skull fracture after having been hit with a golf ball in November 2005.
Mr Pehm said it was likely the HCCC would never have heard of many of the recent complaints without the publicity of these incidents.
He said the HCCC was aiming to increase community awareness of the health watchdog and had recently employed a person to handle publicity.
"The more publicity, the more aware (the public is) of the commission, the more complaints will be received," he said.
Mr Pehm also said he had concerns that 30 per cent of complaint investigations took more than a year to complete.
He said changes were under way in the agency to "instill an urgency" into the investigation process and to stop people "dragging their feet".
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