‘White elephant with no staff’: Griffith Citizen of the Year issues warning about new hospital

A veteran surgeon who was recently named Griffith Citizen of the Year has warned the town’s planned new hospital is poised to have empty wards and limited services, due to chronic staff shortages.

Dr Narayanan Jayachandran, 70, was given the Australia Day award honour for his 22 years of service, saving lives at the public Griffith Base Hospital and St Vincent’s private hospital next door.

He’s also been a passionate advocate for keeping health services in Griffith, often fighting against government cutbacks and lobbying for better facilities.

“The powers that be at Wagga never wanted us to get a new hospital in Griffith,” he said.

“The only reason we won the new hospital was because the community stood up at Memorial Park and protested in 2017.

“But the fight is not over. We now have to fight to make sure the new hospital is staffed.”

Dr Jayachandra said NSW Government bureaucracies the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) and Health Infrastructure “completely ignored” medical staff input when planning and building the facility. Now, they face problems with the hospital set to open later this year, he said.

“I was told they’re not going to open the surgical ward, but they’re going to send the patients to the rehab ward instead. But the rehab ward is not structured to take surgical patients; we can’t risk it,” he said.

“If the surgical ward is not opened, you won’t have any surgeons left in Griffith. We’ll all leave.

“They’re apparently not going to open the short stay ward because of a lack of staff. Why do you build these things, ignore local advice and then you can’t staff it?

“I raised these issues with the Griffith Council, but the [previous] council didn’t help at all. I’ve now to approach mayor Doug Curran for support.”

The general surgeon says Griffith could become a real-life version of a famous episode of British comedy Yes Minister in which a fully equipped new hospital was operational for two years without any medical staff or patients due to budget cutbacks.

“It may well be a white elephant with no staff,” he said.

Region asked MLHD which services would be operational when the new hospital opened and which would not.

“To facilitate a safe transition, all existing services will relocate and settle into the new hospital,” a spokesperson said.

“There will be no decrease in beds or services. A number of additional staff are being recruited to support the flow of services within the new health facility. The new hospital features a perioperative suite with two digital operating theatres, one procedure room and day surgery facilities.

“We have planned for our staff, patients and community to settle into the new building before bringing additional services online or increasing the capacity of existing services. This approach has been developed in consultation with medical staff.

“The new hospital has been designed with the capacity to grow as demand for health services changes. This will be managed carefully with priority given to patient and staff safety.”

We also asked whether emergency surgery would be performed at the new Griffith hospital and how many unfilled staff vacancies there were at present. The MLHD declined to answer both questions.

“Healthcare services in rural and regional areas across Australia are currently facing ongoing challenges in key health worker recruitment. MLHD will continue active recruitment efforts including offering the increased incentive package of up to $20,000 for health workers relocating and commencing work in hard to fill, critical roles at rural and remote locations,” a spokesperson said.

Over the past two years, nurses at Griffith Base Hospital have repeatedly staged protests to highlight chronic staff shortages and poor pay and conditions.

But the man best known as ‘Jaya’ said he’d continue to fight for the town he loved.

“I’ve been asked to move to bigger cities, but I said no chance. No amount of money in the world would make me leave. Once upon a time we didn’t have traffic lights in the city; how can you not love it?”

Dr Jayachandra grew up in the Indian capital of Delhi, studied medicine in Vellore and practised surgery in various cities across his home country before migrating to Australia.

Last year, he received the 2024 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Outstanding Service to the Community Award.

“I’m blown away by the fact that I come here, work in a rural town, suddenly out of the blue people are recognising me for what I do,” he said.

“I don’t know who nominated me for the Australia Day award, because I tend to shy away from those things.

“I was hoping they’d do away with the winner category; all the nominees deserve equal recognition. They might not be able to do what I do, but I also can’t do what they do. All efforts contribute to the community.”